December 22, 2020

I had to retire a pair of sneaks.  I was on my own the first run in the new ones, so I did a bit of speed-work since it felt so bouncy. I love new shoes!

Definitely have had some cold runs, “real feel” in the teens. Here in Buffalo, the snow patterns can be all over the place. We live about 2 miles from downtown and on one run there was about 2 inches at our place and absolutely nothing downtown.

It amazes me how many people here in the Elmwood Village, as our neighborhood is called, walk. Even at 5:45 or 6 am we see walkers and runners.

If we take a certain route, we usually see a cute older couple out for a walk with coffee. Some days I wish that were me, lol…just out for a leisurely stroll with my coffee!

It’s so cool how you get to know a city by running. I love taking a new route and seeing how things connect. We end up on some very interesting streets and can probably (almost) get to anywhere from anywhere.

The only problem, is I’m not sure if I can get to a place if I’m in a car! Everything looks so different than on a run.

Same with a race. When I run the Buffalo Marathon, they close the streets to cars so we are running in the streets. It is, crazily enough, a totally different perspective and if I didn’t have the signs directing me I swear I wouldn’t know where I was!

These past few weeks I have noticed an upturn in oblivious drivers. Does anyone look to the right anymore when they making a right-hand turn??? We see so many drivers looking to the left to make sure no cars are coming that don’t look right to make sure no pedestrians are coming. I always tell my husband “make eye contact” before he crosses in front of a car.

I tell him all the time it is like running with a toddler. I have to tell him to look before he crosses, make eye contact, yell stop as we approach an intersection…it’s exhausting!

The other day I did a solo run and it had just snowed the night before so most people hadn’t shoveled yet and the streets weren’t plowed.

Boy did my glutes feel it! Those first snowy runs can be so hard to get used to. I have to tell myself to lift those feet!

I ran to Forest Lawn down the street, and what a wonderful run it turned out to be. They had already plowed the whole cemetery and there wasn’t another person except for me (well, above ground anyway).

The grounds were quiet and beautiful with the clean snow. I had planned to just run through and come out on another street, but it was so nice not fighting with unplowed or unshoveled snow that I did my whole run in there.

It’s a few days before Christmas and I still have a bunch to do. Sticking with running early in the morning is going to go a long way this week towards keeping my sanity since it will be one less thing during the busy days that I have to think about.

I do these running ramblings every other Tuesday and I can’t believe the next time I do one will be in January of 2021!