Friday, December 01, 2006

Winter Wonderland...Fun Running on Snow & Ice

Within two short days, the temperature here has dropped 70 degrees (F), and it has also iced and snowed 6 inches! That's life in the Midwest. A little weather doesn't stop us Trail Nerds from running, though!

For the group run last night, we went to SM Park. The park was closed, so we parked at the entrance and ran into the woods from there. The windchill was minus 6 degrees, but in the woods the temperature was tolerable. I felt underdressed at the start, but after I got going, I warmed up a bit. My Patagonia Dragonfly Houdini is the perfect windbreak/outer layer.
PatagoniaDragonfly
At just 3.5 ounces, this baby rocks!

Eight Trail Nerds and one dog showed up. It was a blast running with our "screwed shoes." We cruised down trails and did a lot of bushwhacking, too. You never know what's under the powdered snow, so every now and then it was a stumble-fest. Woo-hoo!

We ended up playing hunter/tracker with the dog, because he took off for a while on his own. We split up and headed back to a rendezvous point, and he finally heard our calls and he sheepishly came back by finding two Trail Nerds to run back with. (He was put back onto his leash from that point on).

I ran for 70 minutes, but some of the others went back out for round-two. What a fun time!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ben,

I've read your blog for sometime now. I hope by late this coming spring I'll be in good enough shape to join your runs. They sound like fun. I run out there by myself sometimes.
So I have to ask. Don't the park rangers frown on you guys being out there after the park closes? I know I've been asked to leave the paved Mill Creek trail a few times after dark. It doesn't stop me though :)

-John S.

Unknown said...

I love running in the snow. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Ben, aka BadBen said...

John,

The Park Rangers are truck-based and stay to the paved roads in the Wintertime. They've never hassled us, (probably because they can't see us). I see walkers and x-country skiers out there at night, too.

I hope you can join us soon. We have all levels of ability on our runs. On Thursday night, I was the slow one, but I was the oldest by 18 years, also.

Happy trails,
Bad Ben

Lora said...

ohhhh...the snow and ice scare me. I'm still so afraid of falling...so I do the treadmill when it's really trecherous. Kudos to you for staying out there!!

Anonymous said...

So when are you going to come to Arizona and do the Grand Canyon, rim to rim to rim? (Yes the park rangers hate that, but people do it).

Ben, aka BadBen said...

Hunuhpu,
I'd like to do that, someday. A 74-y.o. friend of mine just came back from doing a rim to rim to rim. He decided to do it in 3 days and stayed at the inn at the bottom.

Olga said...

Does it stop the rain too?

Ben, aka BadBen said...

Olga,
The jacket works well in the rain, and has a hood.
Ben

D said...

You guys are hardcore with your screws in your shoes and all. I ran on Saturday in the Shawnee (HILLY) area and was cautious over the ice but that does not even come close to hardcore!

Anonymous said...

What a fun run indeed...we were like a bunch of little kids out there.

Ben, aka BadBen said...

Yeah, acting like a little kid is the bomb. I hope I never lose that.
Stupid, reckless acts of freedom and fun.