Run 136 - A chilly run in the Heights

October 28, 2023

It’s a Saturday morning and that means out to Billings Heights again to work off some more streets.  Shelley was able to join me this week and I laid out a route that continued the one we did 2 weeks ago, starting on the east side of Lake Elmo Drive before working our way back on the west side.

The weather was, well, brisk.  OK, it was 9 degrees F but there was no wind.  This past week’s snow storm left about 3-4 inches in the ground and since it had rained before that there was a bit of ice underneath it all.  What I have learned is to stay on the slightly crunchy snow for the best traction.

Dressing for the run is always a challenge and I like to underdress a bit, figuring that I’ll warm up as we go along.  I had my knit hat on and a buff around my neck.  Top side I had a long sleeve tech shirt under 2 long sleeve cotton shirts and a sweatshirt pulled over those.  I have my running shorts on under my winter pants which are a cross between tights and sweatpants.  I wore my lightweight running gloves with fleece ones pulled over them.  For the first mile or so my cheeks were cold as were my hands.  Every time I’d stop to check the map or to take a photo I’d pull off a glove and it took some time for them to heat back up up.  Such is winter running.

We parked at the Fish and Wildlife office.  Here’s a photo of the moon setting.

We headed south on Lake Elmo Drive and just before we got to our first turn on Roxy, a sudden flurry of movement came from our left.  It was 4 deer starting to scatter and 3 of them ran right in front of us and headed down the sidewalk.  Here’s one that stayed behind.

We got around the corner saw the others.

We have to loop back and forth on these streets.  Most have no sidewalks but when we got to Main Street the sidewalk there wasn’t much for running on.

For the most part we ran in the streets and with very little traffic at this time on a Saturday morning the greatest risk was slipping and falling.

Back and forth and then out to Main and Wicks and then back to Lake Elmo Drive where we crossed over at Stillwater and started zig-zagging the streets back to where we had parked.  

When we got back, we saw an access point to the lake and went to take a look.

            

It was a good run but compared to the 5-mile run we’d done yesterday, Shelley commented that this felt like 10.  I agreed.  We both felt a bit beat up and figured that it was the combination of hills and running on really rough surfaces.  But we got it done.

Here’s a video tour of the run.