The first of March.

Today is Thursday, and on Thursdays I go running. Today, according to the calendar, is the first day of Spring. Today is also the day when the Beast from the East has really made its mark, with a lot of snow about and road closures all over Derbyshire.

Anyway, I went running. Out across the fields, close to where I live. Nothing too hard or technical, just fairly low level running through sheep fields and along lanes. In summer you can hear skylarks, and sometimes spot them as well. However, its still winter despite what the calendar says and the snow made it rather more interesting than usual.

First of all there was the windchill, which according to Buxton Mountain Rescue Team was about -18C! They posted a little video on Facebook shot on part of my run route showing the local conditions.

The chill was so harsh that I was tempted to turn back and go home, but I carried on. I'm glad that I did, I soon warmed up when out of the wind and anyway, it was fun!

Wind tends to move snow about, stripping it from the fields and depositing it in drifts. I had to wade through quite a bit of snow, thigh deep in places, Small Dog struggled to get through and needed helping a couple of times.

Small Dog enjoys snow. He rolls in it, eats it, and generally runs amok in it. But it sticks to his paws, icing up on his pads, so maybe I should consider getting some boots for him.

As a bonus, both my beard and my eyebrows froze.

I enjoy snow. I like riding in it, running in it, snowshoeing, and even driving in it. Today however, I'm staying at home, having called a snow day for the first time in my life. With road closures and train delays I just didn't fancy the trip to work, as even if I got there ok there is still the journey home (late shift this week) to consider. So I stayed at home.

Paul.