First Run in the SNOW!

This morning was my first opportunity to run in the snow. Not much snow compared to bloggers in the northern states and Canada, but still white and fluffy. My goal today was a medium long run of at least 20K (12M) at an easy pace. This coming Saturday is a 10K race that I want to run so I decided to get my longer run out of the way. As I just ran a 28K long run on Saturday I wanted to go easy (pace) today. I left the house about 8:00 a.m., quite late compared to most of my longer runs, but I had to clean the snow off the sidewalks in front and on the side of our house before I left. My wife had a appointment at the hairdresser, so I was covered on the home front, so I was really looking forward to my run.

The first couple kilometers went slow, there was ice built up where people had been walking. But once I headed out across the fields and into the forest there was 2-4' of virgin snow. The snow was light, fuffy, and a bit slippery, so it was easy to keep my pace down. The first 9K (5+M) were over my normal trail that I run on Monday and Wednesday nights. Shortly after the 9K point I turned off the trail and headed over a bridge that straddles the train tracks that separate my trail with the Graben Running Clubs trails.

I wound my way over the trails, running mostly in the forest. It was snowing lightly, the wind was calm and it didn’t feel cold. I passed an older jogger who seemed to be having the time of his life running over the new fallen snow. We exchanged greetings as we passed, he was all energetic and smiles much the way I felt!

A few minutes later I passed a group of six ladies Nordic walking, they barely noticed me as I went by they were too busy catching up on the latest gossip I guess ;-).

I wound my way on around the loop that circles the forest. I saw a deer run across the trail ahead of me run fast friend, its still hunting season!

Eventually I came back to the start of the running club’s trails and the bridge that lead back to my trail. By this time my feet were a bit wet and starting to get cold, but just 5K to go at this point. I continued down my familiar trail, passing several people taking walks or walking their dogs. The dogs seemed to be distracted by the snow today, they left me alone for a change.

Anyway I finally made it home without incident. I ran for 2:48:47, just a couple minutes less than 28K/17M my long run on Saturday. But today my pace was slower so I probably only ran about 26-27K (16-17M). This was 20-30 minutes more than I had intended to run, but hey it was the first snow of the year :-))