Day 2 of the Snowpocalypse

Day 402 - February 6, 2010

Days like today are what make a running streak fun. Yes there is 15" of fresh snow on the ground, and no the roads haven't been plowed, but you still have to run. With a running streak, you find away. Today, I was fortunate that a few brave souls had been out on tractors and in their 4-wheel drive trucks and left me tire tracks to run in. Otherwise, it would have been a very tough run though 10+ inches of powder that has fallen since they gave up plowing last evening.

The traction wasn't too bad today - I only slipped twice when I hit patches of ice from last weekend's storm that were covered in fresh snow. Fortunately I was able to maintain my balance and not fall like yesterday.

The snow was sticking to everything and really made for some nice photos. I'm glad I took the camera with me today. Hope you enjoy a few of the views I had today.

And the snow came

Knowing I had another long day of work and family commitments today (Happy B-day Sarah), I decided to get up early and get my run in. Overnight it continued to snow, but the accumulation was really low here at the house (maybe 2 inches), but it was still snowing and blowing and sticking to everything.

For a while now, I've had the idea of taking a camera with me on a run and snapping photos along the way and what better day to try it than in the middle of a snow storm. As I started out, it was still snowing and the roads were covered. The snow was so fine that packed under foot, so traction wasn't too bad, but still slippery.

I decided I would stick with a favorite run that would take me through some wooded sections and avoid as much traffic as possible. The run starts out with a pretty steep hill, but as you can see, a few cars had already made it too the top. After making up the hill, I turned out to Swift Run Rd and then on down to the main road. As you can see in the photo on the left, the plows had not been out yet.

Fortunately, I only needed to be on the main road for a few hundred feet and then I turned down a "dirt" road. Of course, it was nearly pristine snow. There's just something cool about being the first set of tracks in fresh snow.

The wind started to come up and the blowing snow was really coming down. At times, visibility dropped to almost nothing, but would clear up within a few seconds.

Today's run was pretty fun, but I'll be sore from all the slipping and sliding. It is amazing how much that little extra slip affects your stride and stretches it out. Tomorrow should be back to normal as most of the snow melted this afternoon. The forecast is for chilly temperatures, but spring-like weather is on the way.