Well it finally came…Yes that dreaded snow storm. But it really didn’t feel like a storm. It was just a light snow falling for 3 days straight! Very fine and steady snow with no let up, until we ended up with over 16” of the white stuff.
Up until the 17th of January, I had been averaging almost 10 miles a day this year. I just joined Run Wild Missoula again, our local running club. They have a 1200/2000 Mile Club. All you have to do is log your miles on the website, and if you run 1200 or 2000 miles in the calendar year, you get a fabulous prize!
Last year they got running jackets. A fellow runner who I was talking to in my favorite coffee shop, Starbucks told me all about it because I had told her I had logged over 75 miles for the week.
When she told me that Run Wild Missoula had the 1200 Mile Club, I thought, “Heck, I’m on track to run a lot more than 1200 miles this year.” So I’m shooting for 2000 or more.
But as I said the snow came, and then it just kept coming like the clouds had finally been given permission from Mother Nature to let go.
When I woke up on Wednesday morning, T looked out the window and said “There is about 3” of snow out there.”
I said, “Is it runnable?”
She just laughed and said, “NO!”
That is when my life as a runner came to an end for 5 days!
Oh my! What is this world coming to?! Well can you say “snow shovel?”
We picked up our snow shovels and hardly put them down for 3 days. There was a run on shovels, and Ace Hardware ran out of them and had to ship them in from some of their stores across the state.
The only good thing that came from all that shoveling was a good workout!
One thing I did notice was although my back was aching from all the shoveling, but it was my middle and upper back that was sore, not my lower. So I know all my sessions at the chiropractor’s is working. This was just soreness from all the strenuous use of previously hibernating muscles.
I had every intention of going to work on Thursday, and had done all the shoveling and clearing I needed to do for T to drive me to work. But as we backed out of our driveway into the alley, we promptly got stuck…oops, there was over a foot of snow in the alleyway.
So I called work and left a message that I would not be in that day. Luckily one of our neighbors had a 4 wheel drive, and he hooked up chains to us and pulled us out.
Before he did that, we first shoveled most of the alley to the street so we would have a place to land when he pulled us out of the hole/drift.
T then backed our van into our driveway and there it stayed! We decided it was a good day to stay home!
On the news that night, we heard of numerous reports of vehicles getting stuck, and how treacherous the roads were. When it was all said and done I took Friday off as well, as the roads were still being cleared and I knew even if I took the bus, I would still have to navigate by myself downtown from the bus stop to work, not something I was willing to do with the conditions.
So on Friday morning T and I went out again and shoveled (again – so by now we were on about our 10th shoveling event), and as T came from the front of our house down the alleyway, she said, “You know what makes me really happy?”
“This time when I’m done shoveling, the snow isn’t covering over where I just shoveled! Yes that makes me very happy indeed!”
We found out later that it was 5th biggest snow event since they have been keeping records in 1893! I think that it ended up being 16.7 inches! No wonder my back hurt!
Saturday morning I tried to walk to my mom’s place – just a few blocks away – but it might as well been 100 miles away. It was way too hard to navigate through the unplowed sidewalks, and then . . . it started to rain!
So before I could even get to my Starbucks a block and a half from my house, I had to turn around. And if you know me at all, it really does take a force of nature to turn me back from a Starbucks mission!
Okay by now it’s Sunday, and I am officially going stir crazy! T and I went grocery shopping and then drove down to see if the bike path where I run was clear. It was!
Right then and there I made a plan to have T drop me off where it was cleared, and I could run until the path was covered over.
It ended up being clear for about 2 miles. So I ran back and forth on the same stretch of dry path. Hey it was great to be running, and not on a treadmill! It was sunny and in the low 30’s and felt great! I got in a total of 8 miles.
We have a city ordinance that your sidewalks have to be shoveled by 9 a.m. and by Monday I was tired of all these places where I travel being unpassable by a blind woman with her cane.
So I got on the city website and submitted several complaint forms about sidewalks that had not been cleared. I’m hoping to have a clear path to my running route and work by the end of the week!
Until then, T will drop me off after work where it’s cleared on my running path so I can get a few miles in each day. As Anne Burrell would say, “That makes me a HAPPY, HAPPY Girl!”
How ‘bout it?
- Vision Runner
