Tips for running in melting Snow

Warmer days are finally hitting this week.

50 degrees?  Sounds like heaven after spending days & weeks in negative temps.

Winter - be gone...

I was like a kid on Christmas morning waiting to get home from work & put on my running shoes & get outside.

It was an adventure, to say the least.  Why?  Because when its 20 degrees the few days before & you had an extra 5 inches of snow, when it turns the opposite direction & goes in the 50's - all that snow has to go somewhere....

& running in it, is the adventure.

here are some of the things I learned about it.

1. You're feet will get wet.   There is just no denying it.  Running shoes are meant to breath, which means air out, & also wet goes in.  There would be areas that puddles were just everywhere & if you want to keep on going, you just jump right through them.  Side note on this - snow melting makes for extra cold water on your feet.  I wish I had thought of it before & wore 2 pairs of socks because my feet were soaked through & freezing within the first 10 minutes of my outing.

See the puddles on the side of the road & up ahead where there is no getting around it?
yep - wet feet.

 

2.  You will get splashed.  With puddles everywhere, when cars go by, be prepared.  I did have some actual nice people out there that would slow down & try not to cause the wave of water to hit me.... but you know there are always THOSE people out there that could care less about anyone but themselves & actually seem to hit the gas to see how much they can ruin someone else's day.  Jokes on them because that's what wicking material is for & I wasn't the least bit worried about it.  I just kept my eyes closed when someone was keeping the speed up.

Yep... exactly like this...

3.  Be careful on the side of the road.... if for some reason you do try to get around the puddles or have to get to the side of the road, watch out.  All that water means one thing - the ground is also soaking wet.  Mud & ground that sucks your foot right into the earth is just waiting for you.  Its not safe to keep your normal pace when you have to venture into that area.   You don't want to slide & slip... much less have to worry about washing off your shoes.  If you do get mud covered, at least you know there's huge puddles ahead to jump in to start washing it off.

Also look out for people who live in the mud :)

4.  Don't judge the shallow puddles... with puddles everywhere, you sometimes don't know how deep they are.  You think, I'll just run through that & then find out that its almost shin high.  That's always a fun surprise.  So try & stick to the middle of the road when you can with traffic.  Puddles don't usually stay towards the center.

Think that puddle was just a half inch deep? 
Nope.. think again...

5.  Enjoy the beauty ... with water rushing down the streets & into the streams on the side of the road, it caused the most beautiful sounds.  Soothing.  Something I would want to stop & listen to, if I weren't running :)  But I actually did stop at one point & watch the streams flow & the babbling brook tones of it.  Relaxing.  Nature is something to stop & enjoy every now & then...

...even with wet feet....

See the stream going through the trees?
Beautiful to see... beautiful to hear

Be safe everyone.  Spring is almost here!