All Downhill From Here

Last night I had hills on the schedule but with all the melting lately and then a cooler temperature last night, I thought the hill I usually run might be icier than I’d like. It wasn’t really chilly out, only -3ishC/27F, but it was enough to freeze slush and little puddles.

I rarely wear my Yaktrax on street runs around my house, because the main sidewalks are often cleared, and I just run on the street until I get to the boulevard. Last night I got 30 seconds out on the street and had to turn around and come back for the trax! All the hard-packed rutty snow-slush had turned to ice and I couldn’t even make it down the little slope without slipping.

Once the trax were on I was able to confidently jog right out of the neighborhood on to the main drag… and find lots of dry concrete, so I took them off and carried them the rest of the way.

There was a heavy fog and I found myself not really concentrating on my surroundings. The fog limited visibility to not much more than 30-40 meters or so, and the darkness didn’t help. I felt like I was running in a CSI show.

I got in about 7ish km, dodging the frozen puddles here and there and climbing up and over one big monster drift the sidewalk plow hadn’t been able to get through.

When I got back my hair and wooly mitts were white with frost. I looked like someone had streaked my hair with Whiteout!

Tomorrow Dawn and I are racing the 12 Mile Coulee XC (not 12 miles, merely5), which in the last couple of years has had really nasty weather. Tomorrow’s forecast is for a high of +9C/48F! Hurrah! With all the melting/freezing going on lately, I think it will still be quite a challenge just to make it through the course.