Running Up Mountains and Shoveling Snow

Its true.  The sun makes everything better. Actually, being outside makes everything better, and the sun makes it spectacular!  It seems my new MO for long runs of 26 miles or more is to follow them with marathon snow shoveling sessions.   I cleared the drive of ~6 inches the day following Rehoboth, and here again yesterday, made several trips outside to keep up with the 10+ inches we were gifted with on Tuesday.  Too bad "Daily Mile" doesn't have a category for that - although I guess cross/or aerobic training would fit.

Anyway, I was particularly proud of my strategy yesterday, going out 3 times to shovel so I wouldn't have to tackle it all at once.  Yeah, good plan.  Thanks to the drifting and blowing last night, one half of my driveway had about a foot and a half of snow on it this morning, while the other half had less than an inch. The college where I work was opening late, so that gave me time to bundle up and hit it.  An hour and a half later, I stood leaning on my shoveling admiring my work when the plow decided it would be a good time to get to my little street of three houses.  It must have been the stink eye I gave him that made him jerk the plow blade away from the end of the drive so as not to create "the wall" that plows leave when they try and get in as close to the curb as they can.

Just what you want to see after finishing your hot chocolate!

As it was, I had to reshovel a little, but not like other times when I would haul the wheel barrow down and just throw the ice chunks in by hand.  Its okay through, I like shoveling, and even though neighbors come out and use their snowblowers in a quarter of the time it takes me to shovel, it is a task I enjoy.  Today was particularly pretty with a clear blue sky and everything sparkling and fresh.  And I guess the airport was back in business to boot!

When did E'burg become a flight path?

And this wasn't even my only experience with pure beauty this week!  That long run before the shoveling came in the Massanutten Mountains on Sunday where I tackled the "GaptoGap" run with the VHTRC.   When Coach suggested the run, I figured I would go, and could bail whenever it started to feel like too much - these are mountains after all.  A lot of folks were going to run just part of it, including Pam, so I planned on hanging with her.  But Coach went to all the trouble to print out a "turn sheet for dummies" that was so intricate and detailed, I couldn't possibly get lost.  So I hung with him and surprisingly, was able to keep up.  Man, it was fun to charge down the rocky hills -mostly because with the 3 inches of snow, most of the rocks were covered and that made the course so much friendlier to my not so coordinated legs and feet.  I only tripped once and was able to catch myself before I landed face first in the snow.  There were three huge climbs, and I kept up just fine.  The view from the top was indescribable (so here is a picture!)

Seriously, that is what I get to see when I run on these trails.  So. Very. Lucky.  And that wasn't the only one - there was still another climb that took us to another breathtaking view:

It just kept getting better and better, all day long.  There were icicles as tall as we were just inches from where we ran.

Photo credit: Pam Gowen

Before we knew it, we were running running down, breathless and fast, missing all the rocks due to the great footing from the snow.  I kept thinking I would have to stop, but we just kept running and before we knew it, we were once again in the woods, leaves covering the forest floor, with hardly a trace of snow to be found.  And then we were done.  26 miles of exquisite beauty.  If all long runs were like this, I might be training for a 100 miler every year!