Slogging Through the Snow

The National Weather Service has been warning Lake Wobegon of a winter storm for this weekend. Initial speculation was for 10 inches, but it's toned down since then. We might still get 6 inches when it's all done, but the brunt of the storm will be south of us.

Because of the impending storm, I was skeptical of running this morning. There was an all-club's run from my old club, and I knew some people who were going to be running, so I went. The overnight accumulation wasn't too bad, crusty but not icy, and this morning's temp was 25F. The wind was another story though: 20 MPH, making for a wind-chill factor of 11.

I ran with AmyBee and Coach Gary, and later Coach Terry hooked up with us. I think Gary was happy to have someone else with a Y chromosone to run with. EVERYBODY is faster than me, but I had the watch that beeped the walking breaks. We ran 9 minutes, walked 1. At least that's what the watch was set for. I had a tough time running this morning--I even ate a gel after 35 minutes on the road--so the 9 and 1s were sometimes 8 and 2, or whenever I felt like walking!

We were shooting for 10K, but I wasn't sure if I would make it. However, when we reached the critical point where we could either turn around for a total of 5 miles, or keep going, we kept going. There were a couple of times when the wind was so strong it felt like we were going backwards, and when that happened, we walked.

So another 10K! And a sense of accomplishment. There were a surprisingly large number of people out. I suppose they wanted to get their exercise in before the glut of snow hits later today.