Okay, so the midwest got hit with a giant storm over Christmas. Parts of Duluth got 20 inches, parts got 10, all got freezing rain on top of it. So what this equals out to is really, really shitty road conditions and non-existent sidewalks in most places. I'm not talking thse annoying houses that never seem to shovel and so you have to twist along through slippery, uncertain footing (though, they're part of it since many people were gone for the holidays and returned to completely frozen up sidewalks that are impossible to shovel). I'm talking about snowplows having pushed up several feet of frozen ice and snow chunks to the point of not even knowing where the sidewalk is let alone be able to safely navigate it.
The city has barely touched any of the sidewalks they're supposed to be maintaining. This means no safe place to run. In many places there isn't even a shoulder - I'm creeped out driving to work as there's no shoulder, the entire right lane isn't even clear and there's no place for pedestrians. We drove down Trinity today and saw deer legs jutting out from one of the snowbanks! Just the legs sticking out.
Now usually, I run on the roads, ignoring the sidewalks anyway. But when the roads are coated with ice and with no safe place to jump to should I need to, I'm not sure what to do. Residential roads can only take me so far before I have to get onto a 'main' road that the city should be maintaining and isn't. I have a long run to do on Monday and I guess I'll head the direction of the lakewalk since that route has the least amount of unsafe roads.
The snowmobile trails are great right now! And long enough to put in some serious mileage. And the few snowmobilers we encountered were riding pretty slowly (due to the poor sight lines on the twisty trails or ??) and were easy to avoid by stepping to one side of the trail.
ReplyDeleteBesides, the hills are good training for something, right?
Yeah, that is very true! I'm not so excited about longer miles on snowmobile trails but after today, I'm starting to think it's a good option. I headed to the lakewalk and most of the roads I used were good, just one dangerous spot with no shoulders and not sidewalk and I was able to find a safe way to maneuver. Once I hit the lakewalk, though, I almost immediately left it. It's still icy as hell and no fun to be on.
ReplyDeleteToo bad about the Lakewalk - will make Wednesday night less fun (though the good company will make up for the crappy footing).
ReplyDeleteOh yeah - i figured out the problem! Your (and a few other blogspot blogs) don't like Camino but like Safari. Go figure!! Most other blogs prefer Camino. Ah well, glad to have finally pieced it together and be able to comment!!