Bonus Snow

Sandis got up this morning, looked outside at the fresh snow, and immediately asked if she could go outside to play.  No surprise there, that's what kids do.  I remember how exciting it was to wake up to fresh snow as a kid, how I couldn't wait to go sledding down the hill beside our house.  And it was extra exciting when you weren't anticipating any snow, when it was a total surprise.  As a kid, it seemed most anticipated snow stormswouldn't live up to what I imagined, but the surprise snows, they were pure bonus.

So I woke up this morning, planning on a boring 5-6 miles on the roads before Shawn headed to work.  When I looked out side though, Bonus!, snow on the ground, and it was still falling.  It was time for a change of plans.  I put on my running gear, grabbed some coffee, and headed out to Coyote Ridge.  Running snowy trails, instead of the roads, was surely going to mean fewer miles in my limited time but you can't pass up a chance to lay some fresh tracks.  The trail was very peaceful today.  Other than some rabbit and coyote tracks, and a couple mole trails, the snow was a beautiful undisturbed white blanket.  There was a slight breeze, not enough to make it cold, and birds chirping as the only sounds other than the inimitable squeaky crunch of running shoes on fresh snow.  This morning's run was so much more than I thought of when I went to bed last night.  It was fun to act like a kid again.

After the track Tuesday and Towers Thursday (and 26 days of streaking I suppose) I'm still feeling a little tired.  The legs were a bit heavy this morning.  Tomorrow I'm heading out with some fellow FCTR folk for some good vert on part of the Chubby Cheeks course.  After that I think I'll take it easy for a few days so I can give the Thanksgiving Day run a good go.  I think something around 35 minutes is within reach, maybe 34 if the stars align.  At one time I was hoping this would be the year I finally break 32, but I'm just not there right now.  I'll run hard and be happy with that, whatever it is.