Sunday long run

As I type, some sort of winter storm has arrived in my neck of the woods. The precipitation is swinging wildly from rain to sleet to snow and back again in no discernable pattern, but I think it's supposed to shift to mostly snow for the rest of the day.

Anyway, I tell you that to explain why I wanted to hurry out for a longish run this morning before all of that moved in. I am so out of practice for weekend long runs, and the days of zipping out for 18 or 20 miles on a weekend morning seemed very far away. But the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run is on my calendar in eight weeks - along with some shorter races and maybe a half-marathon in the plan - so out I went for eight or nine miles.

There was a fine little dusting of snow on St. Paul's sidewalks. I got out early enough so that I wasn't the first person (or creature) to traverse the sidewalks, but I got to see them before the snow layer got trampled. It's not a huge new revelation to most of you that I have an odd love for sidewalk footprints, so I was having a ball watching the morning's history play out on the paths.

There was your standard, of course:

Your Yak-Trax-loving pedestrian:

A little lion all by its lonesome:

And a person running with a rabbit?

Later I was over by the Mississippi River and was fascinated by the ice chunks on the partially frozen river. Isn't it wild?!

Then I turned and headed into the wind, and it started raining, and I stopped taking pictures because hustling toward home sounded much more appealing. The rain started to freeze and make the sidewalks more slippery, and by the end my vest had a little frozen ice layer over the front.

Eight miles done, followed by coffee, cereal, and grapefruit. Let it snow!