Ice, Snow, Friends and Trails!

My last couple of runs have been so much fun! I had planned to go to Wyoming the day after Christmas and probably wasn't going to run while I was there. The weather got in the way of that so we decided to go to Kansas City for a couple of days. When I posted on Facebook that I was going my friend Libby told me to let her know if I wanted to meet up to run. I immediately texted her that I wanted to and we set something up. I am doing a 50K in KC in February and wanted to check out the trail. I've heard the trail can be kinda nasty in bad weather that you should learn to screw your shoes. Boy is that the truth! The course is already marked from another race and it is a 10 mile loop that we will do three times. Libby and I decided to run one loop.

We hadn't been running long when we started encountering ice. Running downhill on ice is just a tiny bit frightening! We went much slower than anticipated due to the icy terrain so we didn't get to do the full loop. My husband and kids were waiting for me so I couldn't really justify spending most of the day running. I'm trying really hard to find a good balance between running and family so with that in mind we turned around after three miles. I was happy with six for the day. I'm now even more nervous about the race, but I think I can do it. I'm trusting Libby to force me on the last loop and once I start it I know I will finish.

A couple of pics from the trail. The first one is part of a parking lot. Thankfully we couldl avoid most of the ice on this part, but others you can't. The second pic is the view down a hill. Pictures never really show how steep it is. It was also much slicker than it looks.

 

 

After the run with Libby I didn't run for a couple of days. I had been wanting to run on New Years Eve and was probably going to do a road run. Then I found out it was supposed to rain and snow so I decided to run on the trail. I stupidly thought that maybe the trees would protect me partially from the weather. Ha! I think I mentioned before that I met a couple of nice girls named Amber and Candi at FlatRock. Well, Amber posted on Facebook on the 30th that she was running the next day and wondered if anyone wanted to run with her. I told her she should come to Elk City and run with me and she said yes! Woohoo! She brought Candi with her and we had a great time.

The weather was saying a mix of rain and snow. It was snowing when we started and I was really hoping it would keep snowing and not rain. It did snow for probably the first half of the run, but it switched over to rain. I'm not sure I've ever run in the snow and it was so much fun. I also really enjoyed running with others on the trail. I'm typically alone and it is a lot harder to motivate myself to keep going. We ran over 9 miles and were completely soaked when we finished. My feet were so wet my shoes squished with ever step. I still loved it. I couldn't have asked for a better way to end my year. Soon I will make a post recapping my year of running, but today I really wanted to share my trail adventures.

Some pics of our snowy run.

Me with Amber a mile or two in.

All three of us with the lake in the background. I'm not sure you can actually see the lake behind us but I promise it's there! (sorry Candi for posting a pic with half of your face cut off!)

Happy New Year!!!!!