45 Breathless-icy-windy Minutes

Having decided last weekend to shift my running from the gym into the outdoors, I am starting to wonder if indeed it was the right decision to make at this time of the year. I mean the only sign of spring I have seen so far is the bundle of the (gorgeous) red tulips I got from some friends last Friday. Let's be real, with the kind of weather we've been having up to now, these flowers cannot be local.

Anyway, this week's first run didn't happen on Tuesday, as scheduled but on Wednesday instead. It turned out to be a fiasco too. I took the garbage out with the intention to keep going after disposing of it only to turn back and change into my light snow boots. With all that snow, the running shoes were nothing less than a pair of skies so they had to go, lest I should break a limb in the middle of no where.

5 minutes into the run and I am gasping for air and I don't know what to do. I have been following the scheduled time duration religiously that in my mind there is no other alternative than to follow through. For that reason I push on a bit more until I realise for sure that this breathing ailment is not going away unless I stop running. Imagine being out of breath and not being able to breathe freely.

The wind, in addition is just being down right merciless. Every gust of it is packed with loads of fine icy snow flakes splashing in my face like a bucket of icy cold water every few strides. Some of the flakes end up in my nose which is fine if there's need for it but what I want is air, not snow flakes. I want to breathe, not snort snow (ever).

Run-walk, run-walk-walk, ru'-walk-walk, ru´-walk, run-run-walk... It is a battle and although not executed as scheduled, I manage to make the planned 16 minutes of running. 45 breathless-icy-windy minutes later, I am back at home.

As a newbie at this asthma thing, the whole ordeal caught me with my pants down. I hadn't taken my medicine and wasn't even sure of its location. These attacks do rarely happen but from now on, I’m not going out there so unprepared again.