What's a bit of ice among friends?

Today, Wednesday, is hill run day.  

Yesterday, Boulder was one of the balmier towns in the USA with temps in the 40s.  The day before, and the day before that, and the day before that we had snow (about 10" total) and frigid temps.  What with the snow and cold followed by warm followed by 20s today, most of Boulder's surfaces vary between chunk ice and skating rinks.  But, as I said, today is hill run day.  The key was to find a plowed road...a plowed road with no traffic.  Huh. 

The solution: tip toe over the ice out of my neighborhood and onto the western bit of well-plowed Table Mesa drive (a major east-west street in the south part of town), battle my fears and run west with (vs. facing) traffic (because that is the side of the road with the bike lane, also well-plowed) up to the base of NCAR hill where I met up with running buddies Connie & Anita.  From there, we took on the challenge of NCAR's 2k uphill climb, a fantastic hill for measuring one's mettle.  When I'm very very fit, I can run three repeats of the hill (starting from the branch library, 1 mile downhill from the NCAR base).  Today, I was quite pleased to run the hill once in the company of good friends, stellar scenery, sunshine, and a gorgeous buck keeping an eye on these two-legged creatures out enjoying the day.