Christmas Day Running

I wish I had a camera for this one. We were getting a literal blizzard Christmas day. The roads were a complete mess with the snow falling faster than it could be cleared by the large county plows circling the major roadways. In their efforts the plows managed to keep the roadways clear but the shoulders suffered the consequences. They were covered by a tall mound of dense snow so any road around was down to strictly two lanes. The snow itself was the moist heavy snow you get when the air temp is just above freezing. Needless to say, the conditions were dangerous. What's a guy to do on a day like this?

Go running of course.

I ran my typical 6 mile mid-week route; however, today it was anything but typical. When I stepped outside it was immediately clear I was going to have an adventure whether I wanted one or not. The snowflakes were huge and heavy. In fact, they actually kind of hurt when they hit my face. They especially hurt when they crashed into my eyeballs. Try as I might there was no avoiding this. All I could do was laugh it off as my body got attacked by these relentless white monsters.

After pulling out of the driveway it was clear that each step was going to be a challenge. In my continued attempt at forefoot running I made it clear to myself that I would in no way let my heel land. This meant the surface area with which my foot impacted the ground would be reduced and in fact I'd be almost sliding the front of my foot to with each step. It seemed injury was inevitable but I didn't care. I was using proper form by running tall and landing appropriately. If I got injured then I'd face that devil when he presented himself.

Because of the lack of shoulder on the roads I was constantly running right in the middle of traffic. Sadly it wasn't as much of a challenge as I thought. No one swerved or lost control of their car and no plows came in my direction when I was running so I didn't get a chance to practice jumping out of the way. The adventurous side of me isn't getting much to do. Maybe next time.

By the time I got back home I was not only injury free but completely soaked by this dense snowfall. This reaffirms my notion that forefoot running is the way to go. Barefoot running is probably the ultimate way to go but this time of year doesn't really condone that kind of thing.

Until the next adventure.