Long run. Average pace: 10:07.
Outside temp: 34°F
Yesterday I said that we didn't have any snow in Denver. That was true then. It's not true now. It snowed over night, but not too much, maybe an inch or two.
I ran on the Highline Canal Trail, which is a dirt trail. This time I went south from the rec center instead of north. I had never gone on this part of the trail before. I think I like the northern part of the trial better because it has tunnels that go under the busy streets that the trail crosses. On the southern section, I had to cross the same busy street (Broadway) three times each direction, so six times total. And two of the crossings (so four times), I had to go out of my way to go up to a crosswalk to cross instead of crossing where the trail left off and picked up again.
There are several different sets of mile markers on the trail. I used a different set today than I used last week. The one I used today has mile marker 8 at the rec center. I ran from there to mile marker 0 and back. That should have been 16 miles, but between going out of my way to cross the street four times and missing the 0 mile marker and overshooting it, I went more than 16. I could have stopped and walked when my Garmin said 16 miles, but I decided to keep going until I got back to the mile marker that I started at.
The trail was clear in some parts and had varying amounts of snow in other parts. There were some sections where it was packed with about an inch of snow. Also, there are big trees that line the trail in some places and their branches overhang the trail. Snow was falling a little bit at a time off of the trees and it was almost like it was snowing. A couple of times a big bunch of snow fell on me. It was like the trees were throwing snowballs at me.
It was actually quite picturesque, but I was too cold and tired to enjoy it much.
This was a difficult run for me today. If I keep doing this distance and farther, will this distance ever get easy for me? Maybe it would be easier if I went slower. But it was cold and I wanted to get home. I sped up just slightly the last three miles. But thank heavens for smartwool socks. At least my feet weren't freezing. | 