Suited up Like Santa at the 5K

A warm woolen hat was barely enough to keep the sonic booms from blowing out our eardrums at tonight's Albany Winterfest.

Carrie cups her head as the shock waves blast the air minutes before we hit the pavement for the annual 5K 'Last Run of 2009.' Confetti-like TNT dusted our shoulders like new fallen snow.

The chilly temperatures kept the thousand runners huddled at the starting line. We dressed head to toe in hats, mittens, scarfs, long johns, legwarmers and dozens of layers or maybe that was just me.

Once the cloud of firework smoke lifted the gun went off and it was a very long first mile up State street.

My extra pounds of big bushy clothing was like treading water wearing SCUBA tanks wrapped around my legs. My heart was pumping and my nose was running but from the waste down I felt nothing but lethargy. Carrie, my Albany high school athletic guru, pressed me to keep going.

We slid onto the sidewalk for a roomier run. There were pockets of black ice, frozen snow drifts and directional cones to avoid. Carrie volunteered to pocket my two scarfs, babushka and mittens. It would take too much time to peel anything more than that off.

Along the route we met up with friends Ellen Picotte of Prudential Manor Homes in Delmar, running strong and staying alert. She and hundreds of others truly impressed me with their all-season tenacity and their ability to know how to dress for the occasion.

Washington Park was done up in holiday splendor with 125 blinking displays and a beautifully decorated Lake House. I vaguely remember many of the scenes because, at that point, I was battling blurry vision and burning thighs. Pathetic.

Hill after cursed hill, my wobbly legs were like two-ton bricks baking in an oven.

"At the second set of lights you can kick it in with long strides," announced Coach Carrie.



It was an embarrassing sprint down the same street I huffed up a half an hour earlier. Our friend Kim was somewhere close behind ascending fast and furious. Karen waited with cups of steaming hot chocolate and words of encouragement.

May this be my first and only 5K suited up like Santa Claus in 15°F temperatures!