Who goes running in the cold?

Turns out, lots of people.

On Saturday I ventured downtown to Joe on Waverly ("Where Team Joe Began"). Although the temperatures were frigid, we had six runners, including Nico (from France by way of Vancouver), Marco (from Italy by way of Hoboken) and four of us ordinary vanilla Americans. The wind off the river was, er, bracing, but we made good time. Partly because Nico is really fast, and mostly because we wanted to get back to the warmth of Joe for coffee.

I followed up on Sunday at Joe on Columbus. Such a crowd! Gabby and Anthony, naturally, Simon (who just became a US citizen - congrats!) and Carly, their friend Evan (training for a marathon in Death Valley, which strikes me as a very bad idea - any race with "death" in the name??) Noah and Hannah (investigative reporter, wrestling coach and doula all rolled into one), and Laura, who is getting back to running after producing the adorable Maisie a few months ago. Maisie did not appear after the run, as she was helping her father watch a football match. After the run, I opted for a macchiato. Why haven't I been drinking these all the time? They're delicious!

So, the moral of the story is that even on a cold January long weekend, there are still plenty of people who are getting out of bed and running on the weekend. No excuses, people. No excuses. That delicious coffee won't drink itself.

Breaking the Cold Barrier

Yesterday started out with a little sleep-in. That meant 8:30, so not completely lazy, but an hour and a half later than weekday wakings. Anthony and I had wavered about running uptown and after checking the weather for Sunday, had had decided maybe we'd skip. Nobody was going to show up with windchill in the teens.

At 9AM, I started getting antsy. We'd had our Chemex of coffee and oatmeal and ahead of us was a long day of CBS Sunday Morning, schlepping around Brooklyn Heights and to me, it seemed to be missing something.

Suddenly, I had the itch to run. With my people. I was almost afraid to broach the subject with Anthony, who looked very content in flannel PJs on the couch. Then I cracked. "I really want to go run Uptown today." "Ok", he said. Like hundreds of times before in the last 9 months, I knew I had married the right man.

We got to Joe Columbus at ten to 10. Shockingly, there were runners milling about outside. Some new faces as well as my dear friends Christopher Stephens, the passionate pie-baking judge; Laura Gwilliam, the Mommy of Maisy, about 3 months, and who works for Balvenie Scotch(score!), and who is Scotch herself; Hana, who went to my Alma Mater, McGill, studied languages, wrestled Olympic level, sings in an a cappella choir and is a doula; Noah, a classical pianist at Mannes, and a few more. Basically, we were a cross section of New York. A melting pot of countries, backgrounds, interesting jobs and differing ages, brought together by a mutual love of running and coffee.

Great conversations ensued and nobody seemed to notice to frigid air. I was really happy we went running with Team Joe. I now have a renewed enjoyment of Winter running that I thought I'd lost.