Snow Running.

While many runners enjoy the company of others in their adventures, I treasure the aloneness of my time on the road and trail.

But I do love to learn from others about running--trails, nutrition, equipment, training. And I love being inspired by the adventures of others.

Living in the Boulder, Colorado, area, I'm surrounded by, immersed in, a world of runners of every size and level. Most are more talented, more dedicated, more skillful and more conditioned than I am. (And of course, most are younger!) I only need to enter a 10K--any 10K, or 5K or half-marathon for that matter--to be reminded of that fact. Heck, my ambition always is to finish in the top half of any event I enter. More times than not I fall short of that ambition.

Fortunately for me, these runners are generous

It's a funny kind of competitiveness runners live with. It's far more about competing against themselves and/or some abstract notion of Obstacle than it is competing with one another. That's often the biggest and most compelling learning for me in hanging out with runners--Ego has so little place.

Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in a runner's forum I participate in--lurk, really--called Boulder Trail Runners, at Yahoo.com. You can read about it here.

So what brings this up now is an act of generosity that has helped me manage one of the true challenges of running during the cold season in the mountains: icy, snow-covered trails.

To an inquiry on the forum regarding traction, many folks responded with helpful ideas. Most runners with any experience in our local climate, having tried all manner of commercial products (YakTrax, for instance, which I've tried and find clunky for running) have agreed that for our conditions the best solution is the simplest: screws in the bottom of an old pair of running shoes.

Many folks have given verbal descriptions of it. Reid Delman has put the instructions up on his website at Gemini Adventures.

Unfortunately, I don't find any way to link to this entry in a permanent way. So here's the text:

Create Your Own Screwshoes

As the weather get cold and the snow begins to fall adventurers are beginning to look for ways to continue getting out on their favorite trails while remaining safe.  One of the most dangerous aspects of winter training is the ice on the trails.  Whether you live in the mountains, plains, suburbs or city you can run into icy conditions.  A simple way to deal with this danger is to create screw shoes.  Screw shoes are made by taking a pair of old running shoes and drilling 1/2 inch sheet metal screws into the lugs.  Be sure to drill them into the lugs!  It is easiest if you use an electric drill with a magnetic hexagonal bit.  By screwing the screws into the shoes, this will allow the screw heads to bite into the ice in order to give traction.

The million dollar question is; how do I arrange them on the soles of the shoes in order to maximize traction.  Many people have ideas on where to place the screws but it is important to keep in mind that a foot strike is a very personal thing.  As you get ready to place your screws try to imagine slipping on the ice going uphill and downhill.  Where and when will I slip, where do I want the traction?  Runners will use anywhere from 10-20 screws with most people placing them in a circular shape on the forefoot and another circle on the heel of the shoe.

Reid includes a picture.

So I charged up the battery of the electric drill, then dove into the shelves at the bottom of my closet and fished out a pair of last-year's shoes. Made a trip to Nederland Ace Hardware.

Following Reid's instructions, here's a picture of my shoes now for running in the snow. Three bucks.

They work.

Thanks, Reid!

Yesterday I did a twelve-mile run. I'll journal about it soon. It was a great, great experience.