Slip sliding away

As the holidays begin to wind down the running is starting to pick up. Two runs to report over the last 2 days, both on slippery snow covered roads and sidewalks from the blast of winter we've had over the past few days. Just did a very easy 6mi yesterday with the legs still sore/tired from the tempo effort on Monday.

Today was a medium effort 12 mile run on a perfect sunny day with beautiful blue skys and a light northwest breeze and temps around -7C (24F). Just enough of a wind that you noticed the difference in turning into it and had to pull the hat down and get the gloves back on. It was a fairly uneventful run which I did as a 7mi out and back out the highway to start (in 61:00) and then finished out with a 5mi loop around town (in 42:00) with a stop to pickup the mail. Traffic was light for the most part and ran on the edge of the slush on the pave as much as possible. Good run at a moderate effort and feeling decent with no real aches and pains, just a little tired.

While I'm at it here are a few pics from the dvd photo disc that came in the mail late last week from the Kennebecasis Valley Marathon in October. The highlight of this day was rain and cold! Here is the start in Hampton, N.B.

I ran the 1st 14 miles in a 3:10 pace group. Here is our little group with me holding onto the back of the pack in the early miles. I had temporarily ditched my rain jacket at this point when the rain let up momentarily.
Here I am alone nearing mile 20. Lost touch with the pace group around mile 15. Still able to grimace a smile and you can see the steady rain streaks.
Last turn before the finish, soaked to the core, and sooo glad that it's finally over!!
The finish, appropriately in b&w which are the only colors my brain was able to process at about this point. 8th overall in 3:20:03 but still disappointed in my time which was blamed mostly on the weather. We runners are never satisfied are we?