Epic Christmas Run

What a great Christmas morning. The typical craziness with three children opening way too many presents then getting totally bored with their gifts and wanting to play with the other siblings toys. I think everyone cried at least once before 9:00am but eventually everyone calmed down and started to enjoy a very nice Christmas morning at the Kurek household. Later in the morning we went on our traditional Christmas walk with the family (and dogs) at the local reserve. Because of all the rain and warm weather we stayed off the trails and did a loop around the Disc Golf Course but while I walked I could not help to imagine how fun running through the swollen creeks and muddy trails would be. So...upon returning home I grabbed a huge handful of MnM's and a cup of coffee to get my motor going and off to the reserve I went - this time solo. It's about a 10 minute easy run to the entrance where about 15 miles of trails await. I prepared myself to get really muddy and probably really wet and within 3 minutes on the trail I came across my first creek crossing. The recent rain and snow melt had the creek very swollen and fast. The sound of the water moving by was very intimidating and I almost turned around. I grabbed a large tree branch about 5 feet in length to be my depth checker and slowly waded in. The current was very strong and I struggled to move more than about 6-8 inches at a time. I got about half way and my depth finder indicated I was heading for mid-chest water so I bailed and returned to the bank. Though the air temperature was nearing 40 the water had to be in the low 30's and I was really hurting by the time I made it back to the bank. However, now that I was freezing I really wanted to make the crossing. I tried another spot and got across the 10 meter crossing in about 3 minutes in waist deep water. Now I had NO feeling in my legs BUT boy was that exhilarating. I pushed the pace for about 10 minutes to get warmed back up and enjoyed about 5 smaller creek crossings and nearly 90 minutes on the trails. With less than a mile of trail left I had another major creek crossing of the same creek from earlier - just at a deeper and faster section of the creek. This time the water was above my waist and I needed a large stick to use as a lever to keep from getting knocked down by the current. A good 5 minutes to get across and as I exited I gave off a huge scream - wow was this an awesome run. Just when I thought I was home free I came upon a lower section of the trail that was totally flooded from a nearby marsh but was ice covered to make it even more fun. The ice looked to be about 2 inches thick and as I shuffled across the 100 meter section of flooded marsh I prayed the ice would hold. 50 meters across and so far so good...then crash, through the ice and into mid-thigh deep water. This caught me by surprise and as I broke through the ice I fell forward on my knees as my hands went through the ice. Real cold, I mean real COLD. I'm still 50 meters from crossing and with every step I bust through the ice and smack my shins on the edge of the broken ice. Eventually with 10 meters to go the ice starts to hold and I shuffle off the ice and kick it in to high gear to get some body heat back. Now on to the road for my 10 minute trek home and 1:42 on my watch I can't help to feel like this was one of best runs ever. Totally epic - cold, wet, muddy, hilly, & awesome. Back in the house at 1:53 to recount the story to Mom and the kids. They were not as impressed as I was. However, I was reminded several times that I was holding up the scheduled viewing of "Radio Flyer". Merry Christmas everyone.