The urge to feel the ground again was getting stronger,  yet I did not want to spend $200 on mukluks only to find they were not suitable for winter running, so  I compromised and bought these on Kijiji for $50.  It's not as gross as it sounds as they were only worn once or twice by the previous owner and looked new.

A Tarahumara quote came to mind as I took these out for a trial run yesterday, " When you run on the earth and run with the earth, you can run forever."  Wouldn't that be great...