Doldrums

I always feel like late February has to be endured.  I love winter running, but after three months its novelty has worn off, and as the temperature creeps up toward the freezing mark, the snow turns to slush, which turns in patches to ice, which road salt melts into that weird gray slime which seeps through your shoes and makes your feet cold and wet hours after you've removed your soaked socks.  Runs become less of a joy and more of a chore; the prospect of spring tantalizes more every day.

Of course, we are endurance athletes.  We don't love running unless we enjoy, on some level, triumphing over adversities great and small.  Every race has a portion that is something less than perfect, and those portions must be dealt with in the same way that late February must be dealt with.  Life, too, has those same doldrums, and honing our skills of endurance on long slogs through the slush can teach us to cope more felicitously with the doldrums in life.

Some people prefer their entertainment lighthearted and escapist.  TV and video games are the most common and obvious painless culprits, and I think we all sense how even the best screen entertainment is missing something important.  The Buddha said that existence is suffering, and Job that man is born to trouble as surely as the sparks fly upward; every philosophy and every religion recognizes the ineluctability of suffering.  We runners, like the dad in Calvin & Hobbes, not only recognize its reality, but also its salubriousness.

We might not have it as rough as Job, or even Calvin.  Wet socks are definitely a first-world problem.  However, February can teach us that there's a little strength to be gained from our little trials.  So lace up those shoes.  Put on those layers.  And get out there and endure February.

And remember, spring is right around the corner!