Nov 10, 2011

Winter time AGAIN!

A while back I wrote a post about winter running. Right now I know that it is still technically fall, but temperatures in Salt Lake are dropping, and we have had some snow fall.

Honestly I can’t help but laugh again as the cold sets in and see less runners out and about. Unless I was the abominable snowman in another life, I just don’t understand why so many throw in the towel when old man winter comes to town. I know for many that start out running for the first time in the summer have a hard time with the transition because of many reasons such as
school starts, less daylight, etc, etc, and running doesn’t seem to be a priority any more. Believe it or not good memories can be made during the winter months. I have many fond memories in the cold.

December 2004 when I used to go down to a dirt road to do my runs. One morning I put on my jacket, hat, shoes and pants and drove to the starting point of my route. It had snowed a couple days before and the snow had melted a bit to make a nice layer of ice when the freeze showed up. Ice was all over the place and the canal on the side of the road has a nice thin layer of ice over it. As my body ran south my head wanted to look east at the beautiful sunrise over the snow capped mountains. It was indeed a site to behold as I lost my footing and could not revive my steps without veering into the canal. I remember looking at the canal thinking just maybe I could hit the ice with my body spread out and the ice would not break. However my hands and feet hit first and the ice gave way. Luckily the canal was only about 3 feet deep, but none the less it was 3 feet deep and I was covered in ice water.

As I crawled out of the ice I shouted out how stupid the road was for cutting so close to the canal, and of course how unsafe it would be for the children in the area. When I re-examined the area I realized how the canal really was not as close to the road as I thought it was. Now I just felt like an idiot, and I ran back to my car in shame.

The funny thing about this is that the next morning I found myself on the same route and that my foot steps were the only ones still on the route. As I ran past my accident spot I could see the entire situation re enacted completely by my footsteps. I couldn’t help but laugh. I have had many more memories since than, none of them involve me falling into a canal though.

2 comments:

  1. Bro that's an intense story. Where is this dirt road at? Are you ever going to post more pictures on here?

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  2. Gator, that is a great story. It's great that you can laugh at yourself! I recently heard that running trails is the absolute best kind of running for your body.

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