Running Conditions in March - 2013 Edition

Last March was so crazy for running that I thought it'd be interesting to keep track of this year's conditions.  See some pictures here

March began with a snow pack but the trails basically clear other than the occasional puddle the size of Lake Michigan.  It was good running weather too; around 30* most of the time.

March 5 marks the surprise SNOW DAY of the month with around a foot of snow falling total.  Running was sort of hilarious.  The block around my condo was the only one that had been reliably shoveled all the way round, so I just set a mileage goal and did laps.    

March 10 (the next weekend) I saw the second best dad ever.  If you'd like to know about the best dad in the world, go here or here for more information.  Second best dad had his little girl in these huge rain boots and let her run through all the knee deep puddles in the neighborhood.  Relevant because my neighborhood is entirely knee deep puddles from the top layer of snow melting.  The bottom layer of snow hasn't melted yet.  It's wet and cold.  Running is awesome.

March 15 - the best way to sum up the month so far is "every time I want to go on a long run, it snows, or rains or sleets or completely friggin ices over".  The irony is only increased because we're experiencing both flooding conditions and drought conditions.  Flooding because, well you've seen the pictures.  Drought conditions because the ground is still frozen, so as the precipitation melts it's just going into the creeks and rivers and not being soaked up by the soil at all.

March 24 - Spring supposedly started this week.  Temperatures hovered between 5* and 8* to welcome spring (or to mock us) and the wind started it's own party.  Also, I fell down a lot on ice.  After I wrote that, I fell again the next day about a block away from there. I actually started having so many aches and pains I swore off running outside for a little while, just to heal, and made peace with the treadmill instead.  The lakes are still frozen, frozen enough people are ice fishing on them.  Moving water, the creeks and especially the river is not frozen.  And the sun is finally still awake after 7pm.

March 26 - I fell down again.  Really hard this time.  I am so f!cking over it.  This time it wasn't ice but uneven concrete that effed me up.  It was made more gross by the puddles and dirt that I rolled through as I went down and ultimately somersaulted.  Even my pack was gross.  I'd made it almost 10 miles by then though, which is better than the less than 1 mile it took me the past two times I went down.

March 28 - I ran outside for the second day in a row without falling down.  It's a bigger deal than you could possibly imagine. I'm told the snow will melt soon.  I'm still in "I'll believe it when I see it" mode, but having much more hope than the beginning of the month.