I laid down on the forest floor, and let my body submerge into the snow. My fingers no longer hurt from the cold, I couldn’t move them at all. “So this is how it feels to die there.” I thought as I waited for my expiration…
It was 2017 Christmas, my family was in the Illinois suburb and I was bored…well, I was still quite in the deep end after a breakup. I can’t get the thought of “how different this Christmas could have been” out of my head, so I decided to go on a run and explore the location.
After running through a nearby neighborhood, I found a trail the led into the forest, it was 3 pm, everything was covered in paint of fresh snow. I made my way through the forest trails, running like the first hominin who came out of the desert of Africa into the European alps.
I was having big fun. Then my phone abruptly died while still having 70% battery, it was not rated for such cold temperatures. I had no idea where I was, how many turns I had where I was, how many turns I had made in the forest, the address of the house I was staying at.
My hands had started to feel the effects of the cold. As someone who grew up running in the burning hot desert, I was not conditioned to withstand the Illinois winter. I only wore two thin long sleeves, sweatpants, light gloves, and a face mask. As my hands got colder and starting to hurt, I would put one hand underneath my face mask, so the warm air from my lungs will give it some heat.
After running around some more, I was completely lost. some point that evening. The sun had just set past the tree lines, it was 5 pm. I decided to lay on the ground to see what the view looks like, down there. I laid down on the forest floor, and let my body submerge into the snow. My fingers no longer hurt from the cold, I couldn’t move them at all. “So this is how it feels to die there.” I thought as I waited for my expiration…
All of a sudden I realized, that I was the only one crazy enough to run in the forest after snow on Christmas day! I looked down the forest ground, a clean line of shoe prints perfectly drew across the frozen forest. I jump up from the ground and with uncontrollable excitement I ran along the tracks. I was laughing my ass off inside, how did I overlook such an obvious sign?!?
I quickly made it out of the forest like a mad man. I still had to distinguish my prints from others once I got into the neighborhood, but that was easy enough (I was running, so the prints are twice as far apart, and deeper). After fiddling with the keys for a few minutes because my fingers were popsicles at that point, I was able to get back into the warmth, pretend as nothing had happened. It took well over 30 minutes in the hot shower before I regain sensations of my fingers and toes and another thing.
