dances with dirt - devil's lake, wi and always lapham

i've been checking the website religiously (read: several times a day) all of november because they had it listed that registration would open in november.  finally, when i checked on december 1st and it STILL wasn't open... i gave up.  last night after my amazing run (read on) registration was OPEN so i'm now signed up for the 1/2 marathon!  fun will be had by all!

yesterday i had a magnificent rainy, muddy, foggy, pitch black try not to fall down run with my friend jeff in lapham peak.  our weather has been pretty weird all week so it was great to take advantage of the warm temperatures (45 degrees) while we still have them.  by the by... it's in the low 20's today. ha!

we decided to run the black route because the snow was gone from all the rain and jeff called earlier in the day to make sure the trails were open to runners.  usually, once there's snow, lapham makes snow for the ski trails and once they're groomed for skiing runners aren't allowed to run on those trails.  when we can't run those trails we take ice age for an out and back which amounts to 7 miles with a lot less hills but technical and fun.  so the black route it is! 

we started out and it was greasy and slick from the get go.  it gets dark so early and with all the fog it was really really dark!  there's something to be said for night runs with friends.  it is really really a good time.  we slipped and slid our way through most of the route and once we were about a mile from the finish i asked jeff if he thought we should skip the last bit because there's a huge rolling downhill that could be dangerous in the conditions we were running.  we decided to go for it!

this is where we both fell down.  ha!

jeff fell first with a flying hands/knees slide which covered his hands and shins in a good deal of mud which is evident from this picture.

this was near the top of the hill too!  so we laughed and laughed and i yelled "ONE!" and off we went...  we slipped and slid the rest of the way down the hill and i had 2 really near misses where i yelled out as i was running.  sometimes the almost falling is worse than the actual falling.  certainly gets the heart racing!  once we made it down the majority of the hill we found HUGE snow mounds!  several of them because this is where they've been making the snow during the previous week.  so, of course, we ran up and down them all!  it was a lot of fun and we like our fun! 

as i was coming off the final snow mound i didn't realize that there was a ginormous patch of ice and i landed smack on my butt and my gloves got soaked!  more laughing and i don't think i've ever popped up off my butt onto my feet in a squatting postion so fast in all my life.  didn't matter tho' because my poor butt was already soaked through and now freezing!

there was a bit more slipping and sliding as we rounded the final meadow stretch and of course all the laughs!  it was such a fun run and i feel so fortunate that i get the opportunities to run in the places i run with the people i run with. 

it is really theraputic and centering always.  this is what my shoes looked like after the run... not so bad if i do say so myself... except they were soaked through!   the lapham peak trail runners were in full effect in the evergreen grove building... fire raging, food consuming, drinks flowing, and laughter all around.  introductions were made and in 2 more wednesdays i will be a member!  yay me! 

enjoy the journey everyone... it's a good one!