Not going to hit the 1000

I've been recording my runs on a website called bugmiles.com (along with several others; my recently found fitness fanaticism melding with my geeky urge to measure and record). I'm approaching the arbitrary milestone (as it were) of 1000 miles recorded - I started on the website at the end of April, I think, but included runs going back to the Sheffield Half Marathon earlier that month.. I'd set myself the challenge of reaching the 1000 by years end, but the snow may have scuppered that; I don't min at all running in the cold, but the pavements are treacherous with packed, frozen snow and ice and I think running on that would be foolish. Of course, i might have to go out anyway. Perhaps I ought to join the gym again.

26/12/2014: A run in the snow

Just back for a run in the heavy snow that has been predicted. It was just starting as a left, big wet flakes swirling down through the cones of visibility under the streetlights. By the time I’d gone the half kilometre to the park I was wishing I’d worn my hat and gloves, and I could feel the snow settling against the front of my hi-viz jacket. But it was beautiful, especially in the park and when I got to the back roads, with streetlamps further apart and less ambient light, the flakes drifting and fluttering down, their shadows chaotic against the settling whiteness.

By the time I was on Beeley Woods Road the ground was almost completely covered but for some black voids beneath overhanging branches. Looking back I could see my tracks, alone as Crusoe’s on the beach. By now the exertion and pumping blood had made my extremities warm again, and I felt like I was in a silent cocoon formed by the falling snow.