Red Alert

The weather service issued a red alert for Wednesday and Thursday, meaning property-damaging-winds as high as 50-60 miles per hour were coming.  We ran anyway, or at least tried to. Sometimes the wind blew me sideways. Heading up one hill, I was running as hard as I could but going nowhere. The wind held me fast. In the park, I watched and listened for creaking trees, but it seemed safe enough.

Today, however, on the way to a race in Stephens City, about an hour away, we counted at least a half dozen highway and road signs down. Another's post was bent into an upside-down "U" shape. There was also one uprooted tree, although the root ball was very shallow so it wouldn't have taken a whole lot to blow it over. And, of course, there were limbs littering the side of the roadway.

So while it may have seemed relatively safe here, there was wind damage all around.  The "red alert" was appropriate.  Today's race course, though, was clear, the wind had toned down to a breeze, and the temperatures were in the high 30s. Not a bad day at all for a race.