Another Instance of "Wait 5 Minutes..."

Cold and snowy, even kinda miserable. The snow started last night, thick, wet and fluffy, making the roads sloppy and piling up on the unpaved parts of the city. I had to drive to the south and back in the middle of it, and it wasn't fun, mostly cuz there's always some daredevil on Deerfoot that doesn't believe in the laws of physics.

On top of all this, I've had to deal with the loss of a family pet. It was a late Friday night vigil at the pet hospital, having to make a decision that all pet owners eventually have to make. Emotionally draining and I'm still dragging my backside after two attempts at a good night's sleep.

I have some things to attend to this afternoon and wanted to get an early start on the run, like first thing in the morning. Heather, my running mate, isn't a morning runner, so I was solo today.

Anyway, the sidestreets are icy as heck, so running was in little short steps to keep from slipping. Even under the snow it was slippery. The foot bridge to Prince's Island hadn't been cleaned and it was more like running on loose dirt, where it rolled out from underfoot and had me a little off balance. It wasn't going to be a fast run.

Once on the promenade by Eau Claire, the way had been cleared of snow, but that just exposed a rough and uneven layer of ice on the pavement. The St. Patrick's day run was set up, and I passed a few runners with bib numbers warming up. The kilometre markers were set up along the path as were the orange cones to mark the route.

I crossed back to the north side of the river at Crowchild, slipping through more orange cones. About a kilometre on, volunteers were trying to keep warm and out of the wind at the race's turnaround point. I kept going.

I did the usual quick turn around Angel's Cafe and crunched back along the path. Lots of runners out. We seem to be a hardy bunch (or a crazy bunch, as some would consider us).

At the race turn-around, a huge crowd of racers were looping around a stand of spruce trees while the volunteers cheered them on. Several of us other runners melded into the group, and for the rest of the run up to 10th Street, I was running in a crowd. That was were my energy lifted a little and I was actually passing people.

At 10th, the race crossed the river, while I kept going along Memorial. I could feel the energy leave me, and I shuffled up The Path Under The Stairs and toward home.

Today's run:
Distance: 16.12 km. Time: 1:33:26. Average speed: 10.4 kph. (5:48 min/km)
Rest distance: 973.3 m. Rest time: 10:00.
Total distance: 17.09 km. Total time: 1:43:26.

Shoes: New Balance 1061.

Weather: Cloudy and -13C to start, ending with light snow and -12C.