Easy eight + shred level 2. 5:24 am, 34° F, 49% humidity, wind 9 SSE. I decided to venture out wearing the shoes with the most tread. This had the added benefit of knocking the mud from last Saturday's race off of the shoes. I did the County Line Road loop. The portion along County Line Road made me nervous because I had to run closer to traffic than I am comfortable doing on account of the frozen slop that has been deposited by the snow plows. I was going against traffic, there were two lanes each direction, and not much traffic at that time in the morning. Most cars went into the other lane to avoid me, but a couple didn't, which surprised me because I was easily visible with my headlamp and reflective vest. Even more surprising was a guy who was on foot who nearly ran into me. He was walking toward me on the sidewalk and I was on the road. Just as we crossed paths, he decided to step down from the sidewalk into the road. I guess the ice on the sidewalk got too bad at that point. He did not have a light or anything reflective and I didn't see him until he was pretty close to me, but apparently he didn't see me at all. He was wearing a hoody and was hunched down peering at the ground and nearly walked right into me. I said, "excuse me," and he acted really surprised that I was there. Once I turned the corner onto Quebec Street and got back into Highlands Ranch, I had mostly plowed sidewalks with just some icy spots from yesterday's snow melt. As I was waiting to turn the corner from Quebec onto University, I saw the old guy with the stiff arm again. He was turning the same way I was going, but I was on the other side of the street and was waiting for a light, so he got a good head start on me. I caught up with him after a while, and then he caught up with me because we both had to wait for a light near the high school. I spoke with him very briefly. He didn't seem very anxious to talk. He said he was running 6 miles and I'm pretty sure of the route he takes given the various places I have seen him. He probably lives in the retirement community that's adjacent to my back yard. I'm impressed that he gets out there and runs consistently. AP: 9:18. Splits: 9:41, 9:06, 9:18, 9:49, 9:51, 9:04, 8:44, 8:54.
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