Settling into the week.

So it's Wednesday and I've gotten two of this weeks three runs in before the 12-miler on Saturday, and boy have they been special ones.  As some of you might know we've had some winter weather here in the Hub.  When Bec knocked on the front window Monday at 6:30 in the AM there was a nice layer of ice over every horizontal surface; I don't quite know how she made it down the hill from her house, but the important thing is that she did and so there was no turning back.  We headed out on our usual course the to river, hoping with every treacherous step that we'd hit a patch of sidewalk that where someone had had the foresight to lay out some salt.  We weren't that lucky, even Harvard hadn't thought about that.  We did make it to the river and decided not to attempt crossing the bridge ("Bridges Freeze Before Road", anyone seen that sign?) so we headed along the river on the Cambridge side.  There was a lot of running on the grass next to the sidewalk and stopping to make very deliberate steps, but in the end we made it home the better for having been out in the ice.  

Today we had some warning that conditions would be less than ideal, in fact schools started closing yesterday afternoon even though the snow wasn't meant to start until midnight.  Dawn brought with it about an inch or two of wet snow on the ground, Bec was a little worried about sleet but went out on the porch and decided that it was a great day for a run and texted her to get moving.  It was right around 32 degrees which is a great running temperature, and it was also the perfect opportunity to try out our YakTrax  which are basically like chains for your shoes.  It wasn't sleeting when we left but by the time we hit the river it was coming down pretty well; not ideal for wearing glasses.  We looped around the river and when we hit the Eliot Bridge and the turn towards home I felt good enough to keep going another bridge - an uncommon experience even in the summer - and so we went on to the Weeks footbridge.  Today ended up being a 4.4 mile run with a brisk sidewalk shoveling afterwards.  Nice.

I know they say that you shouldn't run in conditions like this, and I fully admit to the danger, but there's something really fun about it too.  We ran the same courses that we've been running all year (2008 that is) but they were more interesting and fun than normal.  I've always loved being out in the snow and running is just another fun way to experience it.  Also though, I'm in training for a marathon in April, the only way that I can have fairweather training is if I move to someplace warmer, and as appealing as that might be some days, it's not in the cards.  This means that I can't be too choosy with the weather that I run in.  Plus I don't have treadmill or gym membership so I don't have that to fall back on it.  I've made a commitment to the marathon and that means some days I've got to run in sleet, or "sneet" as I've heard the mix called, then so be it.