Somewhere under these piles of snow is the National Archives at Boston. Since January 27, our staff there have been blanketed by feet of snow.

Here's their report from the (snow-filled) trenches:

"On January 27, we started with Blizzard #1. Boston made it into the top 6 snowiest storms, gathering an accumulation of 24.6” of snow. (During this storm, Worcester, MA, received an impressive 34.5”–the city’s largest snow accumulation on record.)

Since that time, we have had several nor’easter storms. Over Valentine’s Day weekend, we received the gift of another 16.2”, which fell Saturday night with blizzard conditions that followed Sunday morning: our second blizzard of 2015.

Not to be outdone, on President’s Day, we had a wind chill in the morning of -26ᵒ F.

As of February 18, Boston has a total snow accumulation of 95.7”. If we receive just another 11.9” this year, Boston will have a new record of the snowiest winter since the first weather records of 1891."

As today was President's Day and I had the day off from work, I figured that it would be a great day to get in some good mileage.  I had initially planned on running 30-40 miles, but as the day got closer, I saw that it was going to be likely the coldest day of the year, with wind chills at -10°F or lower in the morning.  I decided to try to start the run anyway, and so I bundled up with my three layers of pants, two layers of shirts, two layers of gloves, scarf, and hat.

Without the wind, the sun was out and running was not too bad.  But I dreaded every turn that I knew was going to give me a blast of cold air.  By the end of 12 miles, my fingers and face were starting to hurt, and I decided to end my ambitious goal.  I figured I would take my leftover energy to the gym and get some cross training in.  I will have plenty of more chances to get good distance in whenever this winter ends.  As an earlier post mentioned, if you are running outside in sub-zero temperatures and winds, cover up that skin, watch out for ice, and know when to seek out the treadmill (even if you are like me and dread it).  It is always better to play it safe, be smart, and save the run for another day.  Happy running, and here's to spring coming sooner!

i am thankful for:

1) the fact that the beginning of the 144 is at the beginning of my block and dumps me a block away from work.  on days when it's super duper cold like today, it was appreciated :)

2) for the lovely bus driver who dropped me off at Bay Adelaide even thought i got off at the wrong stop.  thanks so much!  and thank you for coming early, and i'm so sorry that people were bitter at you for the bus in front of you breaking down.