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Snow frolick!

December 11, 2018 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I was feeling gooooood today after a long night's sleep. Or maybe it was Facetiming with the team the previous evening that put me in a running mood (thanks to Lauren Silberman). In any case, I promptly resolved to burn off all those good feelings by charging up a mountain in the snow. Actually, its a run I've been eyeing for some time and waiting for the right day to do, and today when the top of the hill was enveloped in mist and the slopes covered in snow, I could hear the forest calling to me. It took me about 30 minutes of constant uphill, the only breaks being a couple times I paused to take pictures or had to backtrack because I'd taken the wrong path. The road was dirt most of the way, but starting about a 1/4 of the way up everything was covered in snow, first a dusting, then several inches thick. Underneath with a thin sheet of crackly ice, more like icy frost really, and each step I took had a satisfying crunch. The snow kept me from slipping. As I rose above the village, climbing into the clouds, cats bounded through snowdrifts beneath the frosted trees. I was forced to turn back from one road by an unleashed barking dog but found an alternate route that wound upwards through the gently frosted trees. My calves burned every step, but I thought about the Maryland Heights run at Manidoken and the mountains we'd run at Williams and that gave me the strength to pull myself out of a shuffle and really run. At long last, as I glided over the summit, I saw to my utter surprise another runner coming towards me who gave me a heard "Zravo!" and a big smile. I suppose its somewhat fitting that in a city where I almost never see anyone running that what few serious runners there are would be drawn to the same beautiful routes, not in spite of the steepness and cold and snow but because of them.

Coming down the back side of the mountain I practically flew, rushing to get home in time to shower and take the tram to the first research interview of the day, feeling great about having started the day off with such a beautiful run!

(7.5 actual miles, but 1:15 min so I'll call it 9.5 "Sarajevo miles")