Is Spring Coming?

This morning I joined some friends on their journey to the Staten Island Zoo to see whether or not Staten Island Chuck would see his shadow.  It was nice.  The zoo was open for free and there was plenty of hot coffee and chocolate, plus even a few outdoor heat lamps to keep everyone warm.  It was certainly cold to stand around in 20 deg temps and I felt bad for all the kids.  There was a band playing kids songs and lots of politicians speaking.  My friends who run a tour company in NYC wrote up a better summary here.

If you look closely, you can see the woman in the black hat holding Chuck.

The picture is not so great, but this picture is better than the view I actually had standing there behind lots of tall people.

Anyway, both Staten Island Chuck and Punxsutawney Phil (the real groundhog, considering I grew up in Western PS) predicted spring is coming.  I won't lie: standing out there in the cold, it felt great to hear Spring is coming. But, to be honest, I am now OK with all the cold weather and if Chuck and Phil are wrong, I can handle more cold and snow.  

Winter marathon training has not been entirely easy, but I have loved it.  My training season really started when I got settled in NJ in September.  I ran two awesome halves and was thrilled to turn training for those into training for a full in February.  I am now tapering for that full in two weeks and then it will feel great to get back to running freely, when I want and as I feel.  I won't have to worry about snow or below freezing temperatures on my long run days.  If it is cold or warm out, I can run based on how I feel.  So basically, I am feeling right now that if I got through a winter of marathon training in the northeast, I can do just about anything, rain or shine, snow or heat.  Bring it!

Is anyone really excited the Groundhog called for Spring?