It’s been slippery in Oxford the last few days and they’ve been ecconomic with the grit so I’ve been dragging myself out of bed at 5:20am and enjoying the walk to work via the golf course rather than trying to cycle in with the white knuckle death grip of terror.  Bit of a disappointment this morning though as still no proper snow, just a haw frost and ice.   (Though the freezing fog in the light of my headtorch was pretty).  I felt a bit selfish wishing for the white stuff when I saw the news coverage of all the snow chaos in Basingstoke but hey, they could sent it up here, I wasn’t planning to drive anywhere.   I’d already decided there was no way I was going to risk running in the dark on icy pavements but this was the last working day for us before Xmas so we got sent home at noon.

It was a nice walk back over the parks and by 14:30 we were getting a glimpse of the sun which so maybe I would go out for a short and cautious jog, wrap up warm so I could walk the worst bits without felling cold.  There again maybe it was foolish – hadn’t I set the turbo trainer up in the garage just for this situation.  Turbo trainer – yuck – I’d go for a run!  On with leggings, long sleeves; jacket; gloves.  Tom Waits could sing to me as he never tempts me to go too fast.

I decided to forget my usual loops and instead take the shortest tarmac route to Brasenose Wood where, at worse, I could safely run in circles round the crispy, grassy bit.  Brasenose was nice, I headed into the trees, the the hardpack trail was white and slippery but runnable if taken easy.  I got to the Ridings, a tarmac lane, so took it easy, a well clad runner passed the other way beaming like the cheshire cat.  Stuff it I’d run up the hill to Shotover!

I’ve got a Lewis themed run (CS not DI), through the graveyard where he’s buried and then the nature reserve named after him, but this wasn’t it.  I’d obviously been going the wrong way before though as this must be Narnia – less than a mile from home and I was running in 2 inches of snow.  The few footprints in it had failed to turn it to ice, it was clean enough to dazzle, much less slippery than the stingy dusting only a few hundred metres behind me.  This was great!

Continuing up the bridleway past a toddler so impressed she was sitting in it.   The sun was getting lower and casting an amazing light through the white trees.  Along the top Shotover Plain was covered too deep to be sure if I was on the track or the grass.  A couple of locals were exercising their people.  A golden retriever had decided to have a lie down in the white stuff.  Another young family that had taken the gamble and gone for a walk turned adventure.  Everyone was grinning.

I wasn’t going to waste this so headed off into lesser known tracks in the forest, it wasn’t so easy to find my way with everything white.   I followed a small track till it went through a 4 foot high tunnel of bramble which refreshed me with a dollop of snow down the neck.  If I’d have paid attention I’d have realised those were deer prints not dogs I was following.  Over the field into dazzling low sun, back up the top, back down the bridle way to see another runner who’d discovered this wonderland.

Then of course it was back through Brasenose wood noticing that the snow really was little more than dusted ice there.  A ginger jog back along the pavements stepping into the road more than once to avoid iced puddles.  No doubt it’ll all be slush or ice tomorrow but so glad I caught the moment!