Some runs are better than others

And today's was one of the others.

Snow began falling overnight. When I left for the meeting spot all the grass, trees and shrubs were covered as was my car but the streets and sidewalks were just wet. I cleared off my car and headed to Valley Forge to meet the trail running group; Pete, Renee, Tom, John C, Jeff and Amy. Pete, Tom and Renee had gone out at 7 to run Mt Joy and Mt Misery and met the rest of us at Washington's Headquarters at 8 a.m. Pete described the run and off we went.

We entered the Chapel Trail from the opposite end of a few weeks ago. About a quarter mile in I panicked. Honestly a wave of panic/fear about keeping up and being able to finish is not that uncommon for me especially with the trail group but it usually just washes over me and I plod on. Today I couldn't shake it and found msyelf having difficulty breathing. I waved the others on and turned back to my car.

Being the awesome folks that they are they came back to make sure I was ok. I was too embarrased to tell them I panicked. Just explained that I was having trouble breathing and that I'd see them next week. By the time I got to my car I had gathered my wits about me and decided to go over to Betzwood and run the River Trail alone. Well not really alone there were several dog walkers, many runners and even a few hardy bikers.

Biking that trail today was tough. It was very muddy. I had my Yak Trax on because of the snow. I wasn't sure what to expect on the trail. It was mistake. The snow was heavy and wet and the combination of that and the mud kept clumping up. I had to stop often to clean them out because the build up was causing my gait to change.

The snow changed to mostly rain and it got very cold. I forgot my sunglasses so the ride home was difficult. The sun reflecting off the snow hurt my eyes.

I finished my 7 miles but it was ugly. Now it's time to move on to better runs on another day.