One Must Have A Mind of Winter...

It was the stuff of legend. At least in our minds. Snow up to our
armpits. Uphill all the way. Up going up, up going down.

Sunday morning, in boots, and with about a foot or more of snow on
the ground and more coming down I started out for Steel Derrick. Nine tenths of a mile gently uphill. With a walking break or two I made it just at
7:30 and headed around the path. One hundred yards along and busting
through a snowy bough bent over the path comes Matt for our agreed meet
up.

"Is there any circumstance in which you won't be running?" he had
asked me the night before. "Hmm," I thought about it. "Nope. I'll be
there." The group run was to be at Forest Lane in West Gloucester,
unreachable most likely on Sunday morning and nowhere to park if you got
there. So Matt on the Lanesville side and me on the Pigeon Cove side
decided to meet up at Steel, a one mile run for me, two miles for him.
Seemed fair. He took about 30 minutes to plow through from his end. I had it easier and shorter but still had some moments alone on the trail wondering what the hell I was doing.

We saw each other across the quarry and met in the middle of the quarry. The running was easier on the water as there was no snow. No ice either. Just water.

We ran together for an hour on and off what we recognized as
trails. Plowing through the woods, decidedly off trail at one point, he
asked me as I was in the lead "Do you know where you're going?" "I think
so." I answered. "I think if we keep going this way we'll end up at the
Steel Derrick path." We did. Sort of. Then he ran me home and he went back across the three miles to his house. I was out 75 minutes. He was out
another 45 beyond that.

He's going to be very, very fast on the mountain. One out of two ain't bad.

-Peter Watson