tortoise pace

My pace lately has been the slowest it has ever been in my life. In fact, last week most of my runs were around 12 minutes/mile. I'm usually in the 10 minute range (which is already pretty slow compared to a lot of runners!). What gives? Well, I can think of a few things to use as excuses. The first is that I'm sick with chest congestion. This has diminished my energy and has made me even struggle to climb the stairs! Some people would say I'm crazy to run with chest congestion but I figure I might as well wait until it gets REALLY bad before I take some rest. It's still in the stage where the mucus in my chest is just hanging out there. Once I start hacking like crazy I'll probably rest. Another reason (excuse) for my slower pace is likely that I took a month of from marathon training. I ran slow short distance; not a great recipe for pace on longer runs! Finally, my pace has slowed down due to the weather. Running on snow and ice slows me down. There are times I have to climb over snow banks, like at intersections. I usually run at night, when I typically run slower anyway since I can't see as well (even with a headlamp). Add the darkness factor to the snow/ice factor and you're reading something typed by a tortoise! But you know what? I am just happy to be out there! I am grateful that I am healthy enough to have two legs that get me going at any pace. So I'll plug along as a tortoise...and maybe one day I'll become a turtle again! :)