Frigid South Mountain Night Trail Run

I took off yesterday and got back at it today.  Both days have just had insanely cold weather.  It was in the teens with around 15 MPH winds this afternoon.  The winds looked to be calming down by nighttime.  I decided to head out then.

I went to South Mountain (Lehigh).  I figured with the cold, I'd probably just do the normal loop.  I would've liked to have gone farther, but why bother in this stuff?

I was happy to see a bunch of cars in the parking lots.  I didn't know if there would be any, since school should be on break.  I parked and got ready in my car.

It was probably about 11 degrees with about 5 or 6 mph winds when I started, before 7 PM.  I wore my North Face tights, which were my only clean tights.  They have holes in them, so my legs were cold by the end.  I wore a fleece vest over my ColdGear top.  I also had on a headband and gloves.  This was close to the worst conditions that I've run in.

I started off the regular route.  It was a lot of downhill.  There were plenty of mountain bike tracks and a ton of animal tracks, but not many footprints.  Obviously, running in the snow here isn't a big thing.

This was a lot of fun.  The technical downhill seemed easier and less technical with the snow.  I cruised along.  I finally got my headlamp settings correct.  It appeared to work fairly well.  The brightness of the snow might've helped.

I crossed the road and ran up the hill.  I wasn't looking to go too hard, so I hiked up the steeper part of the hill.  I still ran most of it.  I hiked some of the next gradual hill too.  My one calf felt kind of tight.

I was surprised to see a mountain biker go by the other direction.  I never even see mountain bikers during the day.  I was grateful for their tracks in the snow though.  It made it easier to follow the trail.  I do know the trail well, so I likely would not have got lost here.

I went downhill and had some more fun.  I missed the one turn, but quickly backtracked.  I then crossed the road and began a lot of the super awesome downhill section.  The technical rocks slowed me slightly, but it wasn't too bad.

There's this bridge over water.  It is super steep and was very hard to run over.  I had to pull myself up it.  I then went on to the road briefly and stopped for some cool photos of the Lookout.

Now, I had about a mile of trail to go.  It was gradual uphill after awhile.  I was kind of glad that I couldn't see the top, or I might've hiked.  Instead, I ran along.  It might've been slow, but it was consistent.  There's a spring at one point and that created ice.  I ran around it.

Finally, I was up to the paved loop around the top.  I wanted to get to mile 5, so I ran around the perimeter of the mountain.  The straight up stairway section might have been icy anyway. 

I finished up at my car at 5 miles.  I was a bit chilly when I stopped.  It was a good run though.  It was good to be done in tough conditions.  This will make me stronger.

I'm planning a double digit mileage run tomorrow.  I'm hoping that I don't have to work.  If that's the case, I might travel for my run.  Maybe I'll go to New York State.  We shall see.

5 miles - 53:05 (10:37 pace) 892 feet of elevation gain