YOU KEEP THE CHANGE, I'LL TAKE THE HARDWARE

The entry in my training log from that day reads: "Patching the tire may have been harder than the marathon itself."

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ON A SNOWY December day, more than a decade ago, my then 1-year-old daughter and I headed out for a jog shortly before her afternoon nap. She was bundled up in a The North Face snowsuit and a fleece blanket, cozy inside a stroller that was essentially a fully enclosed bubble. Within two miles, she was fast asleep, so I decided to extend the run.

And then, we got a flat.

I only noticed the airless tire when we crossed a freshly plowed intersection, but I pushed ahead for the final mile to our home. A driver of a car that weighed a couple of tons wouldn't have such fortune in those less-than-ideal conditions, having to pull to the side of the road and kneel in the cold powder to put on the spare, or call for roadside assistance. Thankfully, we cruised smoothly along sidewalks still covered with three to four inches of snow.