Ice and Rain and Snow

After doing some snowshoe running on the golf course over at Highland Green, Ryan thought there was enough snow to get out on our XC skis Sunday afternoon. Emily was coming over for dinner to discuss her marathoning plans with Ryan, and had new skis she wanted to try out, so she came over early and joined us. We headed over to Merecreek Golf Course around 2:30 pm. By the time we arrived, the wind was whipping! On top of this, well, let's just say the skiing was less than ideal. 😁😂 Lots of ice and lots of thin spots. We stuck to the edge of the golf course on the way out and then looped back on the trail through the woods as the wind was too strong to return out in the open. Sam was a trooper and despite a few tears at the beginning, got back into the groove of things and really did a good job, especially given the conditions!

Later, Sam got bored with us while we were talking after dinner and ran off to do her own thing. When we went upstairs to get ready for bed later, I found this in the bathroom, nicely placed under my toothbrush so I would be sure to see it 😆😃 Am I a lucky Mommy or what?! 😍

Even after that lovely message, it was hard to get back in the swing of things on Monday morning and I did not manage to get out of bed for a run. Which meant I was up on Tuesday morning, watching the snow fall, doing my arm and core exercises and wondering if we would get a call that school was delayed, when I heard a "Mommy!" from upstairs at 5:00 am. Sigh. A sick kiddo. After getting her bed changed and her cleaned up, she got back into bed and I headed back downstairs. It turned out to indeed be a 2 hour delay, but it would be home for Sam today. With that, I decided to wait until it got a bit light out before heading out for a run. Ryan would take the morning shift with her so that I could head into work to do payroll, which meant that at least I didn't have to rush out the door!

Conditions were not ideal to say the least. With 2" of fresh snow atop ice, the trails were too sketchy for me to want to maneuver, even with my Hillsounds on, so I ran on Highland Green Road out and back on the pavement instead. The road was quiet and nicely snow covered, which made for fairly decent running. (5.0 miles)

Overnight, it rained and Tuesday morning, once again the phone rang, this time saying no school. Looking outside the window, it appeared to just be misting and not too bad, so I decided I'd get ready and go out. Well, it turns out it was pretty nasty out. A thick layer of ice on everything and raining on top of that. Ugh. I did find, however, that the powerlines were a bit less slick than on Monday and there was just enough traction in the ice to run the Highland Green loop in my screwshoes. The truck tracks in the back portion of the road was too icy to run on, so I crunched through the noisy layer of ice atop the untouched snow in the middle of the road instead. Thankfully, once again, the road was quiet. For the second day in a row, I arrived home soaked and took off to work in less than pristine driving conditions. I really hope we get some good winter weather here again shortly! This rain and ice is getting a bit old... (5.0 miles)