What a weird week it’s been. And guess what? We’re getting more snow today. It’s kind of laughable at this point- like just how long will this winter linger on for?
I’m writing this Wednesday night with the assumption that schools will be closed on Thursday. Which means that this week there was no school Monday, an early release Tuesday (for ice), another snow day Thursday, and there is an early release scheduled for Friday (for conferences). We really should have just scheduled some sort of winter break for this week because it was sort of a waste!
Speaking of winter breaks, is it weird that Maryland schools don’t have them? Growing up in New York we always had a week off in February. It was perfect timing between the holidays and spring break. I guess the silver lining is that the school year ends sooner here.
I’ve still been limiting my physical activities to only PT exercises and Alter-G runs while I am there (as long as they are feeling good). Bad timing to get a Vivofit because my steps are pretty pathetic. Even though I walk around the school alot, it’s a really small building and I’m lucky if I get 6,000 steps in on a non-running day.
And on that note, I have decided to not run the Rock N Roll DC half. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, but for awhile it still felt like it was far enough off that I would be feeling good enough by then to be able to run it. It sucks to lose out on the registration fee, but at least I got a good deal on it because I’m pretty sure I signed up like last June.
Did you see the PRO Compression sock of the month? I got the shamrock socks last year and I was really excited to wear them for the DC half which is the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day. So sad. I guess I’ll just be wearing them around the apartment instead.
Actually, I’m thinking about going to the race to spectate, but it kind of depends on the weather and a few other things.
So that’s pretty much what’s been going on lately! Thanks, Amanda, for the opportunity to Think Out Loud!
Have you ever decided not to run a race at the last minute? Did you still go to spectate?
Did you have a school break in February where you grew up?
YOU ARE NOT SERIOUS ABOUT THE SNOW. Okay, wow. If I were you, I’d skip the snowman and sculpt a giant hand holding up the middle finger! No, we didn’t have winter breaks either, just Christmas break and Spring break.
Ha! No snowmen for me. I’m not going outside until spring decides to show up.
I grew up in Maine and the Mid Hudson Valley in New York. I remember having a February break too! However, now living in very southern Maryland is interesting because the schools close for only a few inches of snow! I teach 3rd grade in Calvert county! I was suppose to run RnRDC too, but my training has been slow going as I heal my Achilles’ tendon. As I write this comment, I know more snow is coming to the Mid Atlantic today!
School closures are SO much different in MD than NY! I think its because MD can’t really handle the snow! Hope your achilles gets better so you can get back to training!
It’s hard to pull out of a race, but it’s a smart decision. No race is worth potentially making an injury worse. I went to a Catholic school growing up and we had a week off for Easter and our schools here have a week off for spring break in March. And we got more snow too all day yesterday…..enough already!
I can’t believe you guys got more snow too! It was so warm there a few weeks ago! I feel like at this point mother nature is just playing a cruel joke on all of us.
I’m glad that you pulled out–take the pressure off of yourself. I decided not to run Zooma last year the day or so before, but I still went to meet Mo and Erica. We didn’t have “winter break” but we did have “spring break” which was technically still in winter–the first week of March (this was a private school). Our weather is supposed to dip down today and then get up above freezing!!!! SO EXCITED
It really wasn’t too hard of a decision to pull out of the race. I mentioned it to my PT and he just looked at me and I knew the right decision. And since i didn’t have to book flights/hotels or anything I don’t feel like I’m forced to go if I don’t feel like it.
Yay for temps above freezing!
So, so, so done with this winter. My kids haven’t had a five-day school week since early December. Ludicrous! And in HoCo, they will do all the making up at the end of the year, instead of pulling back some of the silly days off (Easter Monday?) they have coming up. I hate it. I would love to trade spring break for winter break, actually, b/c we always love to get away in Feb!
So far the city still has one more snow day left (which we will probably use tomorrow). But hopefully this is the end of the bad weather!!
Bummed to hear you won’t be running RnR, but it’s the right decision I’m sure. And I feel you on the school delays/cancellations. We are in the same boat here. Growing up in NH we had a Feb and April break!!
I feel like kids (and teachers) just need a little break every 6 weeks or so. A planned break- not a million snow days- to escape the cold weather!
I’ve never backed out of a race, but I can think of 2 off hand that I should have! So I think that’s a smart decision and feels right given all the work you’ve been putting into getting healthy. We have a snow day today too and I’m beyond over it!
The only thing getting me through this storm is feeling like this is the last one of the season! I sure hope so anyway!
Your snow is almost laughable at this point! Snow days are nice until you’re stuck in school extra long in the summers. I never got them growing up (really, even if we got 2 ft of snow) so when we got them for an inch in Towson it was wonderful/funny.
I think it’s smart that you’re not running the DC Half. It’s not worth undoing the progress you’ve done. Plus, my view is if it’s not going to be fun don’t do it!
They really can’t handle the snow here in MD! EVERYTHING is closed today. They are predicting 4-8 inches which would probably have only gotten us a delay in NY.
Our schools do have a break in February (I think they call it “Reading Week”?), but we never, ever got snow days. Even if it was -40 and snowing and blowing outside, it would still be business as usual. Totally unfair.
I feel like snow days are the only good thing about the snow! So I definitely could never live in Canada:) At least there is a planned break in the middle of the winter so you can go away to somewhere warm!
What a week! Sometimes I wake up and wish for a snow day, but the inconsistent scheduling would likely drive me up a wall. That’s so interesting that you used to have a winter break in NY, I have never heard of a break between the holidays and spring break.
Spring break is starting here right now. On Tues. night when I went for my run a bunch of college kids were doing a beer-running-scavenger hunt type thing. Oh to be 21 again! haha
I think that would drive me crazy to see a whole bunch of college kids on spring break!
I do enjoy having days off, but dealing with the aftermath of the storm is no fun.
I don’t know what to think about this snow anymore! We don’t even have any yet but everything is closed. So weird. I hope it’s a false alarm but we’ll see. (ETA: just looked out my window and it’s starting. I think it’s a good decision for you to drop the half. I’ve lost my fair share of registration fees but it’s more important to get healthy. You can always come hang out at shamrock!
It’s annoying to lose out on a race fee, but it happens, and thats what I get for signing up so early! Sometimes I think I jinx myself by doing that. It’s snowing pretty hard now, maybe they did predict this storm correctly after all!
That’s a bummer you won’t be running the half. But probably a smart decision. I didn’t show to a race last fall because I was crazy sick the week leading up to it. It was a small local race, so I didn’t care about the registration fee. I think I would have had a harder time if it was a big race.
We never had winter breaks, but I would have rather gotten out of school earlier in June.
I guess it helped that I didn’t put any training into this race. I think it would have been harder if I trained for a couple months and then got hurt right before the race!
What is going to happen to all of the missed days? Will the students have to stay later into summer to make it up?
I’m sure it’s disappointing not to run the RnR half, but it seems like it’s for the best. I bet spectating it will be fun though!
The school system built 5 snow days into the calendar, and we have used 4. So we have one more and then we need to start adding on the the end. So we do go a little later because of the days we used but it’s not as bad as some of the other areas of Maryland that have used like 6-10 days already!
I had to DNS a 10k in 2013 because my ITBS was so bad after my half the month before. I wasn’t too upset because I had the whole to realize I couldn’t do it, and the race benefits Wounded Warrior. I was more than happy to “lose” the registration fee.
I wish I could donate my registration fee to a charity or something! Or at least defer, but that’s not an option for this kind of big race. Oh well, there will be plenty of other ones!
We had a crazy week up here in PA too! It went like this:
Mon- 2 hr delay
Tues- Early release
Wed- 2 hr delay
Thurs- SNOW DAY
Fri- WHO KNOWS WHAT IS IN STORE??? I am hoping for a delay though haha.
What the hell are we going to do when we have to teach an entire 5 day week with no delays or early releases!?
Do you work for the Baltimore school district? Do you teach?
I work for the University of Maryland and am placed in a Baltimore city school through a partnership/grant-funded project. I’m a mental health counselor so I provide supplemental services to kids with IEPs. So I have to go by the UMB schedule (they’re closed today too) but its always nice to have a day without school because I get to catch up on paperwork! I also work a 12 month schedule so adding to the end of the year doesn’t affect me too much. But I am already dreading next week when we will likely have 5 full days! It’s gonna be so hard!
I’ve never heard of winter break- Wisconsin definitely doesn’t have them either but I could see how it would be nice! Sorry for all of the snow! 🙁
It seems like the end of February would be a good time for families to escape to somewhere warm…that’s what we used to always do when I was growing up!
Yep, snow day here today! Fingers crossed it’s the last one! I skipped the half marathon in January due to crazy weather- it was disappointing to miss out, but it happens.
This has to be the last snowstorm, right?! That’s the only thought getting me through this one!
Not more snow! My high school, college, and graduate school all had their “spring” breaks at the end of February/first week of March, and then another 3-5 days off for Easter. It was always so nice to get two breaks in the spring semester, especially in college when our late winter/spring break lasted two weeks.
It’s a tough decision not to run the race but I’m sure you made the right one. There’s always other races. It would be fun to spectate and get a different perspective on the race, especially in a city with so much to see like D.C!
I think that the end of Feb is such a good time for a break! Sometimes the holiday break doesn’t even feel like a break when there is so much going on. It’s a long stretch to go from January-April!
No winter break (or snow days) for California kids… but I think now they get a week in February to accommodate parents who want to do ski trips. (Do not get me started on how ridiculous I think that is.) The only times I had school canceled was for the Northridge earthquake and for the fires in San Diego in 2007!
If I lived in California there would be no way I would travel to somewhere cold!! Maybe they would like to trade places with some of us east coasters for a bit:)
I would be a little sad to never have snow days…they are a nice treat every once in a while!
In Vermont we had a winter break in February and spring break in April. I loved those weeks off, because we always went to the Caribbean to escape the VT snow.
I’ve never backed out of a race, but if I don’t feel better soon I may drop down to the 5mile instead of the half for my race at the end of March (I just got a referral to physical therapy). It sounds like you made the right choice, and you can always rock the socks for a normal run 🙂
That’s what we did on Feb break when I was growing up! Hopefully you will feel good enough to run your half, but the 5 miler sounds like a good option too!
Thanks! I think I should be fine as long as I don’t try to run for a good time…I miss those February trips to warm weather! Hope your hip is feeling better soon.
I’m sorry Lisa I know how hard this is. Last summer I had to miss two half’s and one marathon due to injury. I don’t know what was harder – seeing the money go down the drain or being sad I wasn’t out there running too. I think you are making a good choice – don’t want to make your injury any worse.
Spectating is tough – I volunteered at the Chicago Marathon when I was injured. You definitely get the itch to want to run, but a positive – you see an entirely new perspective of running. Quite interesting!!
Lets plan for DC 2016!! I loved the half course (the last half of the marathon was kind of boring).
I definitely know its the right decision. Not sure how I would feel being there and not running! I would love to do it in 2016! I just need to figure out how to stay healthy while training for a spring race (I don’t seem to have a good history with that..)
Sorry to hear that you will not be running DC now. But if you are not feeling 100% its probably for the best. It would be horrible if you decided to do it and worsen your injury. Hope you recover soon!
Thank you! And that’s what I figure. I don’t want to make things worse and I also wouldn’t want to feel miserable the whole time.
Winter has to end eventually, right?! I cannot take it anymore! We had a snow day today, too. That just means one less day for spring break! 🙁 I think you made the right decision about the race. You do a great job of looking at the big picture.
You’re right the weather is laughable at this point. Unrelenting. Sorry about having to pull out of DC, even though you kind of knew you were heading in that direction, it’s never fun to make the decision. But it’s a wise one.
We don’t have a winter break here either. We very much need one!
I’d never heard of public school systems having a winter break until my friend was hired by a school in Indianapolis and she showed me her yearly calendar. I was missing out all those years! I definitely would’t taken a shorter summer if it meant more breaks during the school year.
Bummer to hear you won’t be a the DC Rock n Roll half – but staying healthy in the long run is far more important.
My day off averages high 5,000 steps – it’s so sad to see after 20,000+ steps most other days!
Most of the time I run a race but I have opted out and it makes me feel down…but sometimes it was for a good reason..like avoiding possible injury or just not being ready for it and needing more time to prepare…but it always stings a bit you know?
I have to laugh a little before I can sympathize because OOOHMHGOD I am so happy it is finally somebody else’s turn! It’s so terrible!!!!!! Your week is like all of February and all of my January.. I think we only had ten total school days in February…I can’t even make that UP! Terrible!
Fingers crossed that March goes in like a lion, out like a lamb! It’s just been such a terrible winter!
The Mr. and I skipped out on the Hot Chocolate 5K/15K back in January and I hated it! I was getting over being sick and could probably have finished the race but with the cold temps and not feeling well I was so worried that I wouldn’t have enough time to recover before my next scheduled race. I’m still sad that I missed it because it would have been a blast, but I made the right choice by staying home. Ditching a race also stinks, but it’s much better to flake out then run he risk of injury! It’s 30F right now, but we have flowers and a couple dogwood trees in our neighborhood starting to bloom. I will send Spring thoughts your way!
Aww…sorry to hear you had to drop out, but it is ultimately the right decision if you are still not feeling 100%…hang in there and your body will thank you in the long run…no pun intended.
I am a teacher in Pittsburgh and we don’t have a break in February. The stretch from Jan to March is usually the Looooongest, because there are never any days scheduled off because of the poor weather we get. We usually have 3 in service days in those three month that usually get turned into regular school make up days (and it happened again this year).
I’m hoping for the both of us that we are on the tail end of winter girl! Have a good weekend!