Wonderland

Today was one of those days when I thank my lucky stars that I am able to get out and about to enjoy this extraordinary planet of ours.

This has been a heckuva weather week.  The morning the radio announced it was 7 degrees with 7 inches of fresh-fallen snow, I was up and out as quick as could be.  There is nothing quite like running early in the morning of fresh snowfall...a hushed white-blanketed world.  Subsequent days brought more single digit mornings but the snow had turned to ice along the roads, sidewalks and bike paths making running quite a challenge - unless you turned to the trails which is just what I did today.

Running west from home up up up to the trails beneath the flatirons. As I scrunched along the snow-covered trail through the pines I heard chatter ahead of me - a group of walkers and a dog off-leash.  At that moment I realized that one aspect of the run I was most enjoying was the peace and quiet.  How to avoid the chatter? Two options. One: turn around and head back the way I had come, cutting the run short and giving me an out/back - my least favorite kind of route. The second: take a trail heading south that would lead me to a steep downhill route off the mesa top I was on.  I am quite a tentative, fearful, lousy downhill runner (credit a fall down a long steep narrow flight of stairs when I was a youngster). But today I decided I'd had enough of recent wussiness and that it was about time to tackle a challenge head-on.  So down the steep snow-covered trail I went - and it was glorious.  Quiet, beautiful, and a perfect exit to a trail run through a winter wonderland.  Yes, a very good day to be able to be out and about on this planet of ours!