Today is Thanksgiving. I’m with family, visiting the Campbells as I did last year in Liberty Lake – just outside of Spokane, Washington. I discovered this unbelievably picturesque run during my visit last Thanksgiving. I posted a short YouTube of my first run. That is, I just now published the video as I just learned I only posted it to MobileMe last year. It was good cold running weather in 2009, but this year kicked it up a notch. Yesterday was 10^o with a 10 mile an hour wind. Brittiboo and her Uncle Chad ran with me. Today feels warmer. While still only 13^o , the wind is 4 miles per hour and that makes a huge difference. This picture is of the second mile of the run on Liberty Lake Circle.

I don’t care where you live, the Midwest or Canada, this is the kind of cold that causes you to consider the treadmill – but we all felt good. The Under Armour Cold Gear does the trick. It’s amazingly light and keeps the cold sweat off your skin. Of course, we ran in several layers of Under Armour. I forgot chap-stick yesterday so my lips are now cracked. My face was cold but became comfortably numb. The fleece running hat kept blood flowing to my head. I missed running two days in a row due to work on Monday and traveling Tuesday, so it felt really good to run despite the cold.

As I looked forward to the holidays, I think I might have spent the most time thinking about this run around Liberty Lake. It has everything, rolling hills, pine trees lining the road, a small lake beginning to ice over and radiating fog over the road and up into the hills. The lane was buried under a half foot of snow – softening my footfalls. Visibility today was sketchy from falling snow and I blindly ran onto several private roads not noticing myself branch off Liberty Lake Circle. This was an absolute dream run. If you ever get the opportunity to run in the wooded hills of Eastern Washington State – do it. I’m very thankful for such experiences, for my fitness, and hanging out with family. Chad is busy preparing our dinner as I blog. And we’re all looking forward to the UT vs A&M game coming up later. Happy Thanksgiving.