With new snow having fallen — a dusting or so of dry snow — I thought I’d go out yesterday and enjoy a walk, taking care of an errand on my way, and then scooting home.

Little did I realize how awful the conditions were!

I left the house bundled up, knowing that it was very cold outside.  Generally, my torso stayed warm, but the farther I got into my walk, the colder my legs got (I was wearing jeans), and the colder my hands  got.  I was wearing some new running gloves I’d picked up around Christmas, and they just were cutting it in the biting cold and slight wind.  I suspect I’ll need to think about some better gloves for these really cold days, as well as layering a bit more on my legs!

However, what I didn’t expect was for the course to be so slick.  That light snow was actually the best traction I had!  There were places where the radiant heat from the sun melted the snow, with ice forming during the cloudy times.  But the worst was on Wren Trail.

I’d mentioned a week or so ago that the city had done some renovations on the trail, smoothing it out, and turning it into a really nice surface.  However, there was a thin coat of mud left on the trail from the work.  That hadn’t been a big deal… until you put a little snow and re-frozen ice on it.  That little bit of mud turned into a slick-as-snot surface that was awful to walk on.  I ended up walking on the newly planted grass next to the trail, because that was a more gripping surface.

After getting my errand completed, I started toward home, and was getting colder and colder.  The wind chill index was down to about 3°, and the closer I got to home, the more I realized I was fighting an uphill battle to stay outdoors.  I clocked just about 3.5km, and threw in the towel.

However, in the spirit of trying to make this race as close to 5k as I could, I rode a little over three miles on my stationary bike, which translates to about another mile, giving me the overall distance I was looking for.  This was a clunky, clunky way of doing things, and if I hadn’t been so cold, I wouldn’t have even thought of doing it this way.  Obviously, Mother Nature had other ideas for my miles yesterday!

Race Course