It Just Won't Quit

When I was a young lad I loved winter.  I loved the cold and the snow.  I loved when you could step outside and see your breath.  If there was a way, I would make it happen inside too.  I stayed up late during snowstorms just so I could watch.  I went out to shovel every 15 minutes so I had a reason to be outside.  All the adults told me to wait until I was older.  See what my feelings on the subject are at that point.  Not more than an hour ago I spent at least ten minutes trying to get the thick layer of ice off my car in order for me to go to get gas needed for tomorrow.  Most of that time was spent trying to carefully remove the ice from around the gas cap in order for it to open.  And as I carefully shuffled around my car removing ice, which was probably in the top three of thickest I've ever seen, I realized something.  I really love winter and nobody can tell me I don't enjoy it.

Our latest winter storm was a good one.  Most places were in the ballpark I suggested.  Allentown hit 7.2 and Reading unofficially hit 6.8.  Philadelphia was in the stronger bands and hit 9.0.  That general area did better than most had predicted.  Totals are updated on the right and are accurate minus Reading.  This one could have been a lot worse.

It started somewhere around 3:00 for me.  It was light and fluffy and blew around easily.  As it fell a bit harder and I left work you could tell the roads were becoming impacted.  Cars drove slow.  By the time I arrived at my mom's as I do with all snow storms, there was a good one to two inches on the ground.  I headed straight inside to change.  First set of business ended up being to push my mom's car into the garage.  Second was to hit the pavements.  It was probably around six.  The snow was falling pretty hard and the winds were strong enough to be a pain when you were heading into them which I was for the first part of the run.  I basically had to look down at the ground for awhile which had me contemplating turning around.  I'm glad I didn't.  It was awesome.

When I got back I snapped this picture mainly because for the longest time as I ran I thought that for whatever reason I was drooling.  I could see with my light that the upper portion of my shirt had all these wet spots.  I hadn't taken into account that the snow was sticking to my beard and melting as I ran.  Eventually I realized what was happening.  The second half of the run was with the winds behind me so I could keep my head up as I ran.  It didn't stop the snow from sticking to my face and forming some solid ice chucks.  All in all a solid run.  No issues with cars or footing or wet feet.  I actually considered going out again later but decided against it.  That was because I was out shoveling at 5:30 the next morning.     









I was all bundled up ready for the coldness I was going to face being outside so early.  The first thing I thought when I got out there was it really wasn't very cold.  I stayed layered up anyway and got through the job after quite some time.  For the record books, Allentown hit -3 Friday and -4 Saturday.  Not too bad. 

Like December we didn't get much of a break before the next piece of winter garbage came moving in today.  The Freezing Rain advisories were posted last night as ice was anticipated early this morning.  Normally not a big deal on a weekend morning since I don't have to be anywhere.  Except this morning I had my monthly run at the park.  The fun we could have with this mess.  I got up this morning expecting something already and looked out to see nothing.  Okay.  Maybe it's close by.  It wasn't.  It looked to be at least a few hours away.  I guess the sloppy run might not happen after all. 

I decided to skip the short drive and run down to the park.  Again, not too bad out and certainly not feeling like the 12 degrees it was.  I had also ran yesterday and since I was also running to and from the run I felt the 5k would fit me fine.  As I stood at the start I began to see drops falling every so often.  It had to be close by.  With the beginning section still a bit snow covered the race got off to a very slow start.  By the time I ran out of the park I had overruled my earlier constant thinking of 5k and was officially going for the 10.  It wasn't until I was about a little less than a mile away from finishing the first 5k when the rain began to become steady and light.  Here we go.  When I got back to the flatter portion of road into the park the pavement was noticeably slippery to the point the run became more of a scuttle.  On to the second leg.

The rain continued.  The bridge crossing 222 was particularly fun the second time around.  There is no joke that bridges freeze before roads do.  Running on the main roads was generally fine since they had been well treated from before.  It was going back into the park the second time that it became fun.  The whole road had become a thin sheet of ice.  You could run but you had to be careful.  I took it easily and as I ripped off my tag I realized my number was a frozen piece of paper.

At this point it was raining what I would consider pretty hard.  Now I had to get back out of the park.  I walked the entire road back out not bothering risking anything.  Other runners were still running coming back and luckily I didn't see anybody go down.  I continued walking until I crossed the bridge on which I even slipped walking.  After that I ran the rest of the way in the rain.  At this point I had been outside for probably a bit over and hour and a half.  Not a ton of time for everything to get to a point I would think is really cold.  Well I was ice.  Not me personally.  I didn't feel cold.  In fact I had my gloves off a majority of the race and threw my winter hat off after passing the first 5k loop.

The glow on my shorts is ice.  You can see how the line ends.  Why, I don't know.  You can also slightly make out the ice layered on the number after the last seven.

Here is my hat.  Solid ice on the brim.  The reason the top is fine is two reasons.  One is that I had a winter ski hat over the top of it for the first 5k to keep my ears warm.  When I started sweating a lot I took it off.  The natural heat escaping my body kept any ice from forming after that.

By the way my shoes and laces were also ice as was the display of my watch.  I used my fingernail as an ice scraper every time I wanted to look at my time.  It was lots of fun.

So if you ask me if I'm enjoying winter, trust me I am.