And Then I Said, ‘We Used to Have Sidewalks…'

Had it stopped snowing for at least 20 minutes between Friday evening and Sunday morning, I would have taken my long run and my semi-long run—the last two longer runs before St. Malachi next Saturday. But alas.

Mother Nature intends to beat me at the race.

It took a mere 2.5 hours to drive home on Friday evening. I’ve heard of much longer (time) shorter (distance) commutes during the snow-blitzed rush hour, so I counted myself lucky. Because of the insane traffic—I topped out at 25 mph on the ride home and average maybe 10-15 mph—I could have probably run parts of the trip faster than I drove. Especially the parking lot down OH-8 S. Woo hoo! A small part of me, however, didn’t think leaving my car Michael Stipe-style would fare well with the natives.

Even more lucky for us: I had gone grocery shopping late last week and we were set for food. I played with different dishes and even came up with several post-workout dishes that I’ll share next post. While I ate those meals without actually doing the workouts, my belly didn’t mind. This whole weekend had the color of fattening hibernation. I was just keeping with the spirit.

When we finally emerged from our caves this morning, Neil and I could vaguely make out what used to be our garages and maybe a few apartment buildings. And under about 8-10 feet of piled, fallen and plowed snow, I think there was a street.

They’re not too fond of plowing around here, and I’m just happy I bought my trusty 1998 Jetta last summer and found a brilliant neighbor like Vaughn, who bought and let us borrow a shovel. We used the car/shovel combo to get out of here for a couple of hours, buy more food and, of course, reward of laziness with cupcakes from my favorite shop.

(Without Vaughn, however, expletives might have replaced the cupcakes in this post.)

And talk about service: we slid down an icy street pulling into the cupcake shop and plowed into a snow bank. I stomped out of the car and kicked snow around for a while before Sean from MSC came out and helped Neil push while I executed the arduous task of stepping on the gas pedal in reverse.

It took us two tries before we were out and ready to be cupcaked: I had an MSC Fluff and a Vanilla Sundae; Neil had two classic chocolate cupcakes. (Thanks to Kim and Sean for making our post-blizzard Sunday sweet!)

We nixed snow-tubing plans to stave off frostbite today, but this sweet Sunday had near-perfect running weather. If only I had a place to run! As we drove back from the store, I looked over 8-10 feet of piled, fallen and plowed snow. And then I said, “we used to have sidewalks.”

Our street was about 1.5 cars wide and three inches deep with packed snow. Running just wasn’t happening this weekend. I’ll remember this around miles three and four at St. Malachi next weekend. Ouch!

What hurts most is that stupid hour we lost today. Whose bright idea was that anyway? Among all the cupcakes, napping and sunny weather I enjoyed today, however, I didn’t really notice the difference. Until now.