I'm meeelllltttiiiing...

Joy here...In the 1939 cinematic classic, The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is finally defeated when in an attempt to put out a fire, Dorothy throws water over her rival, causing the witch to shriek:  "I'm meeelllltttiiiing..." as all watch her dissolve before their very eyes.

Last year I personified Spring as a fickle biotch, coming and going on a whim, and right now I feel as though I can personify Winter as this wicked witch, melting before my very eyes.

It's a full month too early for me to be thinking that spring is here to stay, but as I look around me at the puddles of water that were once piles of snow; as I put on my sleeveless running top (yes, SLEEVELESS!!!); as I run over sidewalks that are entirely clear, I begin to think that winter may just be on her last legs, melting before my eyes.  And just as I never felt fully satisfied with the death of that Wicked Witch, somehow feeling like it was too easy to defeat her that way and she might just make her comeback, I still feel a bit uneasy with this apparent death of winter.  She may just make her comeback any day, and I better be on guard for it.

But until she does, I intend to enjoy running in lovely weather.  I mean, I thought I had died and gone to spring heaven last week when I ran at 12 C, but last evening when I headed out the door for a run at around 6pm, it was 15 C!!!  It was positively steamy as I ran, with only 3/4 length tights and a sleeveless top.   To put it into perspective, when I ran Hamilton's 30km race last March, it was -10C at the start line, and I was wearing winter-weight tights, a woollen under layer top, a wool jersey, a wind vest, mitts, and a hat!  So having bare skin showing is like some kind of surreal experience at this time of the year.

Click here to see this same spot at the end of January for
the sake of comparison!

The frozen canal is filling up with water and beginning to melt, and all the fair weather runners have come out of their winter hibernation to enjoy the weather.  So as I ran yesterday, just trying to shake the travelling out of my legs and get back into a rhythm, I wasn't alone.  There was a whole community of runners out there with me, smiling and waving as we passed each other as if to say "isn't this great?" to each and every person we saw.  And with all that positive energy, warmth, encouragement, and happiness all around me, I seemed to have lighter and lighter feet.

Without doing any specific training or anything yet, and just struggling to get some kilometres in my legs, I found that I ran faster yesterday than I did all last week.  On Tuesday of last week, I ran the same 7.5km loop with an average speed of 6:13min/km, by Wednesday's spring run the day later, I ran that 7.5km loop with an average speed of 5:55min/km, and this week I ran that same 7.5km loop with an average pace of 5:42min/km.  And while I'm not really worried about pace or anything like that at this point in my training, it is rather nice to see some real progress without feeling like I'm working for it.

So Winter, you just keep on melting away, and I will dance my way into Summer's Emerald City with a smile on my face and a spring in my step!

Over and out,

Joy