Commuting in the Snow

It doesn't snow often in Dallas.  I'd say we get about two dustings per year on average.  There was of course the massive snowstorm in 2010, conveniently about 3 days ahead of the superbowl that dumped about 10 inches and was a complete disaster since there isn't a single snowplow here. 

But this morning (corrected:  yesterday morning (Tuesday), I wrote this out on Tuesday but am having trouble adding photos), I woke up at 4:45 with my alarm, got dressed to go run, and drove to where I meet my friends (less than 2 miles from our house).  By the time I got there, there were ice/snow pellets coming down. 

This is what it looked like:  

 

 

In the shadow on my dash you can kind of see that the pellets are somewhat solid (you can also see that I need to remember to go renew my registration in the next 15 days!).  But I ran anyway, you know, being crazy.  There are a few other runners standing out there, so at least crazy has company.  We set off for a scheduled 7 miles, but before we had gone even a block, we'd all agreed it would be a 6 mile morning. 

 

We ran in the ice pellets for a few minutes, and then it basically eased up for a few miles.  Conveniently, it started coming down again right before our u-turn point for the 6 mile run.  As far from our cars as we would get.  Oh well.  At least when you're with people, you can joke about the misery, and in reality, I've run in much worse and this wasn't that awful. 

 

New word for the day:  graupel.  It means soft hail or snow pellets, and is something different from ice pellets or hail.  So I ran several miles in graupel. 

 

I actually dressed pretty well for the run.  It was 30 degrees and apparently winds of 5-15 mph.  I wore running tights, a very light long sleeved shirt, my Boston convertible jacket, gloves, a skull cap, and a baseball cap (to keep the graupel out of my eyes) (trying to use my new word 10 times to make it mine!).  Not bad.  By mile 5, I was regretting the light long sleeves and wishing I'd worn short sleeves under the jacket, but not too bad for my first really cold run of the year. 

 

When I got back to my car, it looked like this:

 

 

Keep in mind, I park in the garage at home, so it was completely clear before I started running.  Now there was a clear coat of graupel.  Anyway, after our cool 6 miles, I drove back home and had the next dilemma to ponder over a smoothie:  to commute on foot or not?

 

Since we are flying to Pittsburgh tomorrow morning (well, now today), I can run to work but I have to get a ride home so I can take my laptop.  I was planning on having hubby pick me up at the office on his way home from work.  It would work well since it would get me out of the office by 6:30, so I can get home, eat dinner, finish watching The Bachelor on DVR, pack, and have our neighbors over for dessert (to finish off the black forest cake from Sunday night's dinner guests) and to finally open their Christmas presents.  And hopefully go to sleep early enough to get up at 5 to go to boot camp tomorrow. 

 

But I was a little nervous about running to work since the conditions seemed to be getting a little worse.  By the time I had finished breakfast and planned out most of what I want to pack for the rest of the week, our porch looked like this: 

 

 

 

Look at all that graupel!  Actually, I wonder if it's called snow when it accumulates.  No, I think it's still graupel. 

 

In the end, I decided to go for it.  Not sure it was a smart decision, because I felt some knee pain over the last mile, but I took it real slow and the conditions weren't too bad.  The sidewalks felt a bit icy where I was on them, but the streets were better.  I just ran very slowly and easily.  I think I actually set my record for all-time slowest commute by about 30 seconds.  The good part is that I got the miles in, I got the mental "kick @ss, I'm running in the snow" feeling, and there's no way I'll get stuck working way later than planned thereby derailing all my evening plans...