Sidewalks are generally a safe place for us to run.  Though I found out yesterday that that might not always be the case.  As we are adjusting to a new city and schedules I have been running in the morning.  This is fine except that it is dark and since I don’t have a light or much reflective clothing, I thought it would be safer to stick to the sidewalks.

There are plenty of sidewalks near us, so that isn’t a problem.  Except that as I reported on Monday the roads aren’t all plowed to  smooth surface, so goes the sidewalks.  I would be running for awhile on smooth sidewalk, then hit a patch of frozen snow that has been tramped through, thawed and re-frozen.  This makes for a running surface that is worse than most of the trails I’ve run on.

Other times the sidewalk is clear, except for a thin layer of ice.  As the snow thaws during the day, it makes for wet sidewalks, which re-freezes at night.  Finally and maybe the worst, I was running along and stepped into puddles.  It was dark enough that I couldn’t tell when water had pooled and frozen.  My feet didn’t really get wet, which made me very happy.

What’s the Cure?

• Run with a light on the road
• Run with a flashlight/head lamp
• Run at a different time
• Suck it up and keep running

I’m not sure which I’ll do, but I will probably keep running on the sidewalks and do the roads whenever possible.

I ran 3.59 miles in 32:29 which is 9:03 pace.  That’s not too impressive, but given the conditions I was happy with that.  My maximum pace was 7 minutes at one point according to my Garmin.