Running in Snow

Sunday night I woke up to snow before work. It wasn't much but the flakes were pretty big and they were sticking. Throughout the night it snowed. By sunrise I wondered if I would be able to make it up the hill to home. I heard from incoming coworkers that the hill was not plowed. My supervisor was calling all the day nurses to see if they needed a ride in the 4 wheel drive. Really, I was thinking about the snow, but not whether I'd get home. I had chains. I really wanted to RUN in the snow. I was due for my weekly 10K run and I SO wanted to do it in the snow. I wanted to feel and hear the sound of the soft snow packing under my feet to my running tempo and smell the snowy air. I was like a kid with a snowday. woohoo. I'm running! A coworker thought I was nuts when I told her. I conveniently left out the complicated logistics of wet feet and slippery ice in my fantasy. the roads were slushy. My running path in the valley was definitely wet and slushy. My only shoe options were my running shoes (not waterproof) and my boots (not conducive to running). There is still the par course in the neighborhood. Maybe no one touched it. If I am the first to put a footprints in the snow, it would pack down and be a great run. No slush and hopefully no underlying ice. I passed by on the way home and already two cars were there. *sigh* I came home and did some research on snow running here. The kids wanted to sled. The roads were un-runnable. That par course was slush. Okay I'm going sledding with the kids. It was wonderful. My kids would take these amazing risks going down a crazy hill James carved out for us. I took advantage of the hills and ran up the hills after sledding down to get some sort of training in. My quads were sore at the end of our fun. Running uphill in big boots is a lot of work! It was modified but I did in fact get to run in the snow. Later that night James and I went to the club and swam.

There is more snow to come this week. I have other chances to hit the par course on fresh snow. I have to go to the city today. I might stop at REI and look for snow running shoes.