It snowed just enough last night to hide things and be a touch slippery on the roads. We had to take Bennie back to the Vet for further blood tests this morning (we will get the results late next week), so I had a pretty good idea of the road conditions.

Tar roads were not too bad around the house. But if I needed to slide over to the side for traffic, last night’s snow was hiding all the ice that I knew was lying there waiting for me to step wrong on it. So out of an abundance of caution, I decided to run in Waterville.

They usually do a pretty good job of sanding, and the sides/shoulders where I was going to run would be tar. Unless there were frozen puddles hidden under the snow, I would be reasonably safe and probably be more likely to stay upright. Yes, I do think more along those lines than I used to. Falling holds no sense of adventure for me at this point especially, since I do not bounce nearly as well as I used to.

I parked at Shaw’s on Kennedy Memorial Drive and headed out the back way. Getting over to the sidewalk took a little longer than I expected while navigating where they had banked the snow from plowing the parking lot, and it had frozen over.

Not what I would call a promising start to the run.

The first mile was running on bare tar, and then snow-covered tar that didn’t make me feel comfortable in a few places. When I got out on the River Road, it was a little better because even on the road shoulder, I could feel the sand build-up underfoot, and the snow was starting to melt a bit more.

At the last minute, I decided to run over to Winslow and ran across the new bridge. I could see where another runner had gone before me, and the bridge had plenty of salt/sand on it, so there were no issues there.

Although going through some sections of Winslow to the other bridge was tricky in a few places. About the time I went over the Sebasticook River bridge, I got that familiar uncomfortable feeling that happens all too often on runs, but put it in the back of my mind as best I could. I did keep my eyes peeled for one of those blue boxes that pop up from time-to-time.

The worst part of the run was from the old Dunkin Donuts to Silver St. It was snow-covered and patchy ice in places. I did take my time and didn’t worry about pace through this section at all. I was too worried about staying upright in a few places.

Once I got back in Waterville, I decided to go up around Pleasant St. — and then come back through Cool Street to get in 7.0 miles. I have to admit that by the time I was going up Gilman Street, I was starting to feel tired. The footing issues in places, wet sand/salt area, and melting snow made things more complicated than usual for this course. Nothing serious, but I was starting to feel it.

Although I did pick up the effort level again by the high school a little and finished better than I thought that I would. Cool Street was wet but good footing to the end.

I never did find a blue box, and it was in the back of my mind the remainder of the run, and while I had thought about going around Colby, when I turned to get back to Cool Street, I needed to turn — if you know what I mean.

It was a good run this morning, and the overall pace surprised me when I finished. I purposely didn’t look at it while running, so I was happy when I saw the results since I thought it would be much slower than it turned out to be.

The best part was that I stayed upright, always a big priority. I guess running all those hills out by the house are helping when I get to a course that is a bit flatter. 😉