Plow at your six!

Sidenote: Sorry for the delay in blog posts - hopefully though you've been following along with my workouts on Endomondo and reading my micro-blog in the Notes section there.

So runners sometimes say rather cryptic sounding things as they run by. Most often we say “On your left!” as we approach someone from behind in preparation to pass on their left. We’re trying to be polite and not startle anyone by slicing by and surprising them on a tight and narrow trail. Or we just want to get them the heck out of our way cause we’re having a rockin’ run and don’t want to slow down - ok, well most of us runners are of the patient and polite variety when it comes to sharing the trails. Also amongst runners, there’s a bunch of sayings that we share with one another to indicate caution should be taken. Common sayings are “Car up” or “Car back” if there’s a car coming from ahead or behind that should be heeded. “Clear” can be used when crossing intersections if the first person goes and verifies that it’s clear for the next couple runners to pass. Other cautionary exclamations can be used such as “Branch!” if there’s a low hanging or jutting out branch that someone might run into and certainly a favorite, which is also a staple used in cycling is “Hole” specifying a pothole ahead, which is often accompanied by lowering the arm and giving a fanning or sprinkling motion with the fingers indicating where the hole or other debris on the ground might be in order to avoid it best.

So, these saying and others being familiar, it took me a couple split moments to process what someone said to me last night. As I was running my normal 4 mile loop along the Charles River on a clear night of 27F, a fellow runner was running in the opposite direction approaching me, moving at a very good clip I might add, and managed to utter to me “Plow at your six!” just as we were passing one another. Now it was cold, I had a headband over my ears and her voice could have been distorted from it being so cold (meaning that she might not have been able to enunciate those words as clearly in the moment given the huffing and puffing of running combined with your mouth not working as well when it gets below freezing temperatures outside). I just gave my standard hand wave and said “Hey”, but then tried to process what the heck this person had just said to me. Then I got it, turned around and saw a snow plow truck barreling towards me plowing the running trail. An elongated version of her message was: ‘Dude, there’s a snow plow coming from behind you (at your six o’clock position) and so you might just want to step over that little snowbank and let it pass in case the driver doesn’t see you and you get swallowed up by the plow.’ Yikes, thank you my fellow runner (can’t say I’ve ever heard that particular caution before). So I paused my run and took a couple shots of the trail in front of me and of the plow going by just as I stepped over the snow bank. Well, I guess it’s nice to know that they were in fact plowing the trail making it more easily runnable.

Charles River running path somewhere between the Hatch Shell and Mass Ave

Charles River running path - plow truck cruising by plowing the snow after a snowfall (I'm standing in a snowbank)

Later on, after my run I took a couple shots along the Charles River Esplanade of my Yak Trax buried in their element and also just one of me with my headband covering my ears, hair a bit poofed out.

Yak Trax traction strapped to my shoes, deep in snow

Closer look at the Yak Trax, the undersole has steel coils wrapped around rubber tubing for traction

Just another run along the Charles River in the frosty snow

Finally, as I made my way back home, crossing the street a bundled up pedestrian jokingly yelled out to me in my shorts and rolled up sleeves: “Hey, don’t get heatstroke out there!” Ha, ha - people do say the darnedest things…