Snow Shoeing For Gold

The Winter Olympics kicked off this weekend while I made a strong bid to introduce snow running as the next Olympic event. With nothing but a pair of ordinary running shoes, participants must take on the never ending snow that the "lake effect" of western Michigan dumps like clock work. This may seem fun to the novice. This did seem fun to this naive writer. This was in fact not fun .....and there were no pretty girls handing out bouquets of flowers and gold medals at the finish line. Needless to say, I was proud of the 11 miles I trudged through on Saturday on the Kal-Haven trail.

I lived and studied in Kalamazoo, Michigan for four years of undergraduate. To this day the city possesses many of my favorite things. My favorite beer is freshly brewed at Bell's Brewery and always for a reasonable price. My favorite coffee shop, Water Street Cafe, serves up the greatest milk shake (with espresso) I've ever had. The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts can be consumed in an afternoon and has one of my favorite pieces of public art hanging in its main entrance. The constant and relentless snow, however, is far from my favorite thing. I'm not even sure what this "lake effect" is or how it works, but native west Michiganders love to blame their winter existence on this phenomenon. I do know that this had a major effect on this week's training run.

Some avid runners claim that a layer of snow on the ground provides added cushioning and takes stress off your joints that the hard roads would otherwise provide. This seemed true for a couple miles along the trail. Then my shoes got heavy. Then my feet began to slip. All the while giant snow flakes began to bombard my face and find shelter in my hair and eye brows. I began to keep my head down to make sure I didn't slip or trip along the trail. I began to worry about safety. I realized that I wasn't able to turn my mind off and simply flip the auto pilot switch like I've become accustomed to. I began to appreciate the ease and comfort of running without thinking and wished I was on a dry paved trail. I had to treat myself to a couple Bell's Pale Ale after this run. It can't get any tougher, can it?