Blizzard of 2005

The Great Blizzard of 2005 is now in our past although we will probably have to view its impressive droppings for weeks to come. While nothing in weather is certain, there s a high likeliness that we won’t see anything like it again this year which is good because for one thing there isn’t much room left to pile up any more large amounts of snow.

By recent standards this didn’t measure up to the recent President’s Weekend storm of 2003 or the monster blizzard of January 8-9 1996, which remains the standard by which all recent storms are measured. The real nastiness of this storm was saved for Coastal New England, which suffered through historic wind and snow that shut the area down for two days and was scary to watch.

Although we were saved the worst that Mother Nature can dish out, a large amount of area people weren’t taking any chances. Lines of over two hours
were not uncommon in places like Blockbuster Video and Shop Rite, where people hoarded loaves of bread as if the stores would never reopen and rented DVD’s as if they would never be able to venture outside again.

The timing of the storm was excellent for my running group which starts around 7 am Saturday and was done before the flakes started falling. With the dire forecasts and with the knowledge of how long plowing takes, it was prudent to try and squeeze a little extra out of the workout. My run brought back vivid memories of the Saturday run before the 1996 blizzard. Both runs were done in low single digit temperatures but the big difference was the 1996 storm didn’t start until Sunday morning.

Usually they prey off winter weather calamities, but I can’t blame the local television stations for this one. It is not uncommon to hear all night teases for the late news with “Snow in our forecast” even if that means flurries in the Catskills, but this time the weathermen were pretty conservative in their forecasts, not mentioning the “b” word until they were pretty certain on Friday afternoon that two low pressure systems would merge in the Atlantic Ocean causing snow prediction totals to double.

But the word must have spread quickly because Friday night and Saturday morning there was a flurry(No pun intended) of activity with wide spread panic eliciting the worst of human behavior as almost everybody seemed to have procrastinated and were now battling in a race against time before the snow storm became too intense.
We noticed the additional traffic on our normally serene running path and we were careful to be even more observant than normal to the unpredictable behavior of drivers.

I’ve actually learned to almost enjoy these events, especially if there wasn’t something in my schedule that was going to get cancelled. We get some family time and you can call just about anybody, knowing they will probably be home. Even though the light fluffy snow seemed perfect for snow blowing I was more than content to cross train with my shovel. Once again running clothes provided the perfect attire for the task which always unfortunately seems to have dire consequences for those too unfit to shovel.

If I’m fortunate to be home when the snow starts, it’s great to be warm and dry in my house taking a welcome break from the hectic pace of everyday life. The follow-up is never enjoyable with the badly tended local roads, the increase in travel time and messiness of freshly fallen virgin snow quickly turning into unsightly slush but there’s always a sense of relief that you have survived.

Inevitably there will be another one of these dreaded weather events and when it transpires one could be assured that all the lessons of planning will again be forgotten. Home Depot will again run out of shovels and salt. There will be no bread and milk in the stores and courtesy will be forgotten as
Darwinism takes over.

So bring on the next blizzard but please delay it until the next presidential administration.

Winter Running 2005

After twenty years of spreading the gospel, I am still amazed at how few people run outside in the winter. Maybe that’s a good thing, because it helps to keep the best running courses relatively uncrowded and allows the serious runners a better chance of keeping out of harms way.

This article is being written under the best of conditions. I just completed my weekly Wednesday night group run and it was uneventful which means it went just fine. The old rule of being cold for the first eight minutes worked again and except for the excessive darkness in places was as good as any run I have done all year. After 19 inches of snow in 2003 before winter even started, this December has been most kind to runners with nary a flake or ice patch on most parks and roads.

What makes these runs even better is drying off and cooling down at our health club where we were not competing for precious treadmill time. Still, a huge percentage of the exercising population has yet to learn about winter running. Once I was one of them, having been badly initiated during indoor track practice in the 70’s when all we had to fight the elements were those dreadful cotton sweat suits. You were warm for a while but once you started sweating, you procured a case of non stop chattering teeth until you removed your garments.

Gore-tex , lycra and polypropylene were nowhere to be found and for many years I sought the safety of indoor running facilities, rarely venturing out to exercise in winter.

My first running club meeting in February of 1985 was a catharsis for me. Seeing all those happy, fit people in the dead of winter talking about their just completed races and the ones upcoming made me a natural magnet to learn how they did it.

That night the guest speaker taught the unwashed like me about the importance of dressing correctly for winter and soon after Runner’s World also had their usual story
about the same subject, talking about how Minnesotans survive real winter weather.

It was my good fortune that soon after my introductory course, the area’s leading running store had huge sale on winter running gear and I overstocked my coffers on poly-propylene shirts and tights.

That first winter, which according to my running diary was pretty mild, I used my new attire at every chance but in each succeeding winter, I have come to use them less and less so amazingly enough I still have most of my original stash. I have found that for most winter days a good old cotton long sleeve training shirt works just fine, especially if I’m able to change out of it quickly.

So in a sense, I’m almost back to square one as far as winter fashion, except I have yet to again run in sweats. And all that high tech equipment I own continues to gather dust waiting for those days of use. And there’s always the treadmills, just in case.

Writer’s note: Between the time this was written and the time we went to press there was the first vicious Arctic cold snap of the winter season. It actually happened in fall but it grabbed the headlines as weather anomalies are likely to do. On Monday December the thermometer dropped below ten and with the wind howling it was not a day to be outside running. I had known about thi8s forecast several days in advance and planned my schedule so I could have a needed day off. But Tuesday morning, the first day of winter,
I was back out and despite the 18 degree temperature(thankfully no wind) I was out enjoying the huddled masses in their cars and SUV’s, while I chugged along.