To pee or not to pee

I had a good run today...outdoors. My husband tried to talk me out of it, but I really had my heart set on getting outside. It never made it to 30°. but it was 24° at 9am, and that was close enough for me. To be honest, I was a bit anxious. I haven't been outside in weeks for a run and everything I learned this winter had already left my consciousness. How do I dress? Do I need a hat? Sunglasses (it's foggy)? Thick gloves? Thin gloves? Water? And, I kind of rushed the departure. It was more of a "Well, if I'm not ready now, I'll never be..." kind of moment.

The driveway and dirt road leading to my route was treacherous, and it was chilly. I swear, Minnesota is one of the one places in the world where it can be breezy and foggy at the same time. As a meteorologist, this is hard for me to understand. But it happens. It would have been a great run minus the breeze as compared to just a good run.

Slightly off topic, I have to tell you that recently I have drastically increased my water intake. And although I peed right before I stepped outside, I hadn't traveled 3/10 of a mile when I felt the urge to pee again. Argh...I did NOT want to turn back. I prayed that the feeling would go away as I warmed up.

It didn't. I had to pee like a racehorse the entire run. I envisioned myself calling the riding stables up the road to ask them if I could use their toilet. I looked left, right, everywhere, ANYWHERE for a place I could possibly squat, but there is nothing on this route but wide open farm land. And then there is the knowledge that 50% of the time when you squat, it ends up all over your pants instead of on the ground. Men are SO lucky, I tell ya. This brings to mind this gadget my friend Ginny told me about. Have you seen it? I'm tempted to get one just to have it on hand at times like these.

Even Target sells them! Although I haven't looked for it per say. If I bought one, I'd probably do it the more discrete way and order it from Amazon.

Regardless, I'm not sure if it was all the treadmill work these past weeks that aided me in this run or if it was the fact that I had to pee. Still, I kept a respectable pace, and wasn't even winded. And this is good.

Looking back at the run, my heart rate looked great. I can tell that the last two miles I just wanted to get home. Despite all of it, though, I didn't call for a rescue operation. Pretty proud. I also know I had good form because nothing hurt afterward.

I wanted to take a picture of my route today before I got started, but the cold immediately attacked my fingers and I was afraid to remove my gloves, so I could remove my iPhone from my arm pocket. So I had to let it slide today. But on Saturday, I'll take a few. There should be sun...I hope...and temperatures closer to 30° before hell freezes over again next week.

How about you? Did you run today? Do you have a Go Girl? And have you used it?