snow run

Snow, falling, is one of the most beautiful sights to behold. One winter evening it was falling. My lesser known, shier, adventurous side decided I needed some exercise at that moment in the form of a run. Surprisingly the fair weather runner inside of me was all about it too, no debate ensued. This photo was from a few weeks later on a much colder day and in the morning but represents the ridiculousness of the adventure. Take note of the frosties on the eye lashes, the frozen hair on photo left, the frozen condensation on my face mask and head warmer.
Now that I have one experience of night time snow running in, I want to catalog what gear was needed and what ended up being dead weight. I was out about an hour and 15 minutes and varied the run between easy jogs, fast strides, stumbling all over the place which caused laughs of joy, making snow angels on the ice down at the lake, and attempting to shovel a porch only abandoning the job after a few minutes because it was a big job and I was starting to cool off i.e. freeze my sweat.

1. wool blend socks - kept the toes toasty and dry
2. running sneaks - ok. didn't keep the socks dry
3. long johns - good for first half of run, then an excess of heat
4. wind pants -great, especially because it was snowing
5. long sleeve mid-weight shirt - wonderful
6. mid-weight fleece - a bit much (though nice for the first few minutes of warm up). ended up taking it off and wrapping around waist
7. t-shirt - good layer
8. wind breaker - excellent, esp for pockets to hold excess items
9. eye protectors - were from my eye surgery. good for keeping falling snow out of my eyes so I could have them open but ultimately useless upon fogging up
10. scarf - great for assisting breathing but added to fog problem and didn't stay situated
11. watch - useless. a few minutes into run it was doing a crazy dance on the screen. Has since died. RIP.
12. rubber duckie - unnecessary in some hearts but who else would have witnessed the snow angel?! Also, it was there to talk to any woodland creatures we came across. Its not safe to run alone at night
13. beanie with chin strings - yes!
14. gaitors - WONDERFUL! kept the ankles from unwanted snow trap
15. strings to tie gaitors under my shoes - priceless and cheap
16. headlamp - nice at times but unnecessary since snow reflected plenty of light to see the basics
17. energy - obviously
18. adventurous spirit - don't leave home without it

All this reviewing is getting me in the mood. Excuse me, time to go suit up!


(try to overlook the fact that my nose looks Gi-ginormous here!)