Frosty, Misty Run

Ed's training schedule called for an easy 40-minute run first thing this morning (to be followed by a 3-hour bike ride, lest you get the wrong impression about the intensity of his regimen), and Mischa and I opted to keep him company. Mischa does best when running with a "pack" - one-on-one, she pulls on the leash a lot, but when I take her with a group she trots along at the pace set by everyone else. This was our first attempt at running with her as a duo, and to our relief she did very well and hardly pulled at all. Our mini-pack was apparently just big enough.

This was good, because there is snow and some ice on the roads and sidewalks, and a lunging dog would certainly have toppled whichever of us happened to be holding the leash. We ran carefully. The morning was a lovely one despite the cold (something like 16 degrees). Mischa was in heaven; as a husky, she thrives in cold weather and loves nothing more than to dash back and forth in the snow and pounce on snowbanks. The air up here tends to be quite dry, but we had an unusual phenomenon today: mist. As we ran, the droplets collected on just about every surface and froze. Ed and I both ended up with frosted eyelashes, and the few small hairs that escaped his hat sported winter coats, too. Bits of fuzz on my vest showed up white. Mischa became increasingly icy as we ran, beginning with her face and working back to her ears and ruff.

We knew we had to get a picture of this rare happening, and since I was less icy (and therefore less interesting) than Ed, I dashed inside when we got home--melting my eyelashes in an instant--to grab a camera.

Look closely at Ed and you can see his white eyelashes and a few frosted hairs under the brim of his hat. It's not nearly as hard to see Mischa's frostiness.