Uneven

As I was getting ready to head out the door for my run this morning, Sam looked at me and asked, "Are you wearing your screw shoes, Mama?" I didn't know whether to be proud - our little trail runner in the making! - or horrified that our 3+ year old knows what screw shoes are,when I should be wearing them, and thinks that all this crazy tromping in the woods with screws in our shoes is normal. I think I'll go for proud, at least to make myself feel better :-)

I had initially thought I might get out on my snowshoes today but with the warm weather yesterday, and Ryan telling me that they had been out plowing the road to the top of Mt. A. made me change my mind. I decided, however, to keep with my original route plan, and headed off towards the river. I ran up and over Mt. A. - slippery, icy road! - and took the golf course to the Heath. Lots of people had been out walking, making the way very uneven and potentially ankle-twisting. There was no running gracefully on these trails today! The river was flowing, but a bit more sedately than last time, the dark waters contrasting with the still-white rocks and river banks.

For the return trip, I decided to take the back portion of the Highland Green loop, to check out the conditions and give my ankles a break. The dirt road was a mix of hardpacked, solid dirt, frozen mud, frozen slush, packed snow and just plain ice. The screw shoes did a fine job though, and I had no troubles, although the loop certainly wasn't as fast as it can be in good conditions. I ran back along the powerlines to finish up the run.