You live in northern Michigan long enough and you get used to piles of snow, bone-chilling temps and gray-smudged skies that once February hits really start to wear on you. I mean really wear on you. You don’t want to complain (there’s snowshoeing! skiing! sledding! microbrew fest-ing!), but we do–just a little. The days feel long and cold and monotonous at times. (Maybe a tad more so when you’re training for a marathon and running outside so much?) But that’s winter in the Midwest. We’re hardy, strong people. We can take it.

And enduring this kind of weather just makes us appreciate all the more those spectacular mornings when golden ribbons of sunlight push the clouds aside, as if to say Get the heck outta my way, it’s my turn already. You know those kinds of wintry days, when the dreary landscape transforms into something bright and cheerful and promising. Even dirty snow takes on a more appealing hue.

We had several sunshine-y mornings this week, and what a difference it made for my mood as I ran. Two runs that stirred my soul: Wednesday’s 7-miler and Thursday’s 4-miler.

First: we had an unexpected snow day Wednesday and then I had an unexpected break when my mother-in-law offered to watch my kids. This gave me time to work AND squeeze in a run, which was bumped up to 7 miles from 6 miles the week prior. Surprise #3: Lisa wanted me to experience a “run all the way home with the wind at my back” and, when I mentioned I didn’t have a driver to help with this, she offered to do it.

Which is how I found myself feeling a bit like I was dropped in the middle of nowhere, having to run 7 miles to get back to my place. Driving further and further away from my neighborhood, I couldn’t help thinking, even though I knew the area well, Really? We’re not at 7 miles yet?

The wind didn’t end up being entirely at my back – I’d have had to been dropped off in Lake Michigan directly north of our house to achieve this – but I really liked the idea that I was running a route in a way I normally don’t. Powered by the sun, my run also was helped just after the halfway point, when I reached Lisa’s house and she greeted me at the end of her driveway with a cup of hot tea. (Cooled down with a bit of snow, it tasted great and felt so good on my throat)

Here’s a picture of a cool sign I saw on this run, about three miles from home.