A new month with new snow and new darkness. Daylight savings time has ended so it’s going to be a lot darker from now on. It’s also gotten a lot colder with low temperatures below 0. That means running gear and clothing are more important now than they have been. Hopefully you’ve gotten yourself a headlamp to go with your reflective clothing. And you should have jackets, pants, hats, mittens, whatever you need to stay safe and warm when the temperature drops. If you have any questions about what works and what doesn’t, ask the seasoned experts you run with. It’s guaranteed better than trial and error.
The run this week will be mostly on bike paths with good footing and good lighting. From Patty Center, we’ll head east down the hill past the power plant and take a left on the bike path at College. Continue past the north campus entrance and Ballaine Lake and cross the Ballaine Road intersection. Continue east along the Farmers Loop bike path until you get to Auburn and turn left. There is a bike path on the right side of the road that should be good. The bike path ends at Pearl Creek Elementary School. It will be fairly dark by then so if you don’t have a headlamp and want to turn around here, you will have 6.4 miles when you get back. If you want to continue, go another quarter mile up Auburn until the intersection with Herreid, Wolverine, and DePauw. Turn right there and follow DePauw until you get to Baylor. Take another right there, follow a sweeping curve to your right, and drop down a steep hill until you come back to Auburn. Turn left and head back to Patty Center the same way you came. Total distance is 7.4 miles.