My plan was to run the Canals Loop I saw on Crockett's blog, about 25 mellow miles through the southwest part of Salt Lake Valley. Catherine decided that instead of running in Liberty Park, she would come with me, run a 12 mile out-and-back, and meet me at the car. From the weather reports I knew to expect worse weather than we've had for the past few days, but the last report I saw said high 30s/low 40s with some rain and snow. That seemed manageable, so I wasn't concerned when we hit the canal roads in the rain. And for the first 4 miles, it was very pleasant. I enjoyed running through the fields on the dirt road, and the rain kept me nice and cool. Unfortunately, at some point during my fifth mile the rain started turning to snow, and before long it was really coming down hard. It didn't take long for my fingers to be frozen and worthless, and my clothes were too soaked to keep me warm. Catherine called and said she wanted to turn around, which seemed like a great idea to me, so I turned around and ran as hard as I could till I met up with her at about mile 6. By that point it was clear that we weren't going to make it back to our car on our own, so Catherine called her sister for a bailout ride and I knocked on the door of the nearest house. Fortunately for us, the woman who let answered had just returned from her own cold and wet run, so she let us hang out inside and warm up until our rescue arrived. I'm disappointed to have come up so short on my mileage, but no single workout can make or break your fitness. Sometimes it's necessary to simply take what you can get and then move on. Nine miles are better than none.
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