Virgin Snow Runner

I missed the Saturday morning run with the Trail monsters but hoped to possibly catch a couple of them doubling up and running Bradbury Sunday.

Saturday night,I pulled out my Northface gortex trail runners and re-installed the screws from last year. It was spitting snow and there was a prediction of at least a few inches. I found myself becoming a bit excited as I prepared for a Sunday morning run on fresh snow.

As luck has it, and due to the fresh blanket of fallen snow, I was late getting to Bradbury. I arrived at 8:30 and figured anyone running today would surely be long gone and enjoying the trails already.

I was quite suprised when I turned into the park and there were no tire prints in the snow, I was the first one here, but that also meant that no other trail runners were likely to show up. This didn't dampen my excitement any as I suited up for the run, hey fresh virgin snow was just waiting for me to leave the first footprints of the day.

As I started my run it reminded me of a thread a few months back about gortex trail runners and how most of the comments were about the uselessness of them. Well in deep puddles I supose they are not too useful but in this type of run they were absolutely perfect.

There was some standing water in places but nothing deep enough to cover the whole shoe up to the ankle area. With 4" of snow and a little standing water the shoes did an excellent job of keeping my feet dry. To compliment that I wore my gaters to deflect the loose spraying snow. A perfect situation for Gortex.

What I wasn't prepared for was the trees throwing piles of snow at me. I am pretty sure they waited until I was passing by to drop huge mounds of snow from their branches. Anyone seeing me would have thought I rolled in the snow rather than ran in it.

One draw back to this run was the fact that the ground under the snow was still very soft and muddy. This made for an odd feeling when running and a situation where the energy was being sucked right out of my legs. It felt kind of like running on a snow covered mattress.

Another problem was navigating through the trail. Being the first one out on fresh snow cover, it was quite difficult to see the trail at times and I am sure I bushwacked a bit. I wasn't too worried though as I knew I could always follow my tracks back to the start.

Overall the run was fantastic. The minor inconvienences became the meat and potatoes of the run, without them what would make this run stand out in memory other than the snow sparkling as the sun peeked through the branches and the chrystal clear air.

Though my legs tired as the miles passed, my core felt great. I think the workouts I have been doing are really starting to prove themselves.

Weekend stats:
Saturday
7am 3 mile cardio/ weight workout
3 pm 2 mile run at Twinbrooks with my daughter's pup.

Sunday...8:28 am 7.38 mile trail run @1:17:29 (10:28 pace)