My Traditional Midwinter Stupid Stream Crossing

Every winter, I make it a point to ignore a perfectly good bridge and splash across a freezing creek.  Why?  Well, just because. 

I did this run as part of a 10-mile road loop on Tuesday morning.  Air temp was approx 28 F.


Bridge over Conococheague Creek on Frederick's Mill Road



Some clown wading across the creek.  Note the walking stick (I'm dumb but not stupid--it really helps).  Using self-timer feature on my Nikon Coolpix pocket camera.

I tell myself that the ostensible purpose of this exercise is to toughen my feet in particular and my body in general to some of the conditions that an Ultrarunner may face, either in a race or in some backcountry training run.  See previous post here about this same crossing in the summer, here for another stream crossing in winter, and a post here I recently wrote here about toughening my feet by going outside barefoot in the winter.

But truth be told, it's become a symbolic gesture, kinda like doing something just because you can.  Or just because.  Reminds me of the scene from the TV miniseries Lonesome Dove, where Gus chases some buffalo just because they're there and he can and he feels like it.

This post would be incomplete without my mandatory feet-in-water shot--the water got to mid-thigh at its deepest.  See also here for another feet-in-water shot from the Potomac River in September.



Oh, and once I resumed the run, my cold feet were back to normal within 2 miles. So just do it!