For our marathon training, we ran 16 miles today. While that is not farther than I’ve gone before (I’ve run two metric marathons, 26.2K/16.3 miles), today still marked a couple of milestones.

1) I have never run in the snow before.

We ran on the NCR Trail (from Ashland to a little over a mile past Monkton and back), which recently received a 1/2-inch dusting of snow. Fortunately, since temperatures have been below freezing, it was not icy or slippery. Despite the footprints from runners, walkers, bikers and deer, it was still soft and powdery. It is a different surface to run on, though!

2) It is the farthest I have run without being in excruciating pain.

I began to hurt around mile 12 during both metric marathons, and by the end I was very sore.

Today my knee did start to hurt again, but it waited until 15.5 and I just walked the last half mile. I expected it, though. When we ran 14, I had to stop running at 13.5. I’m just happy my body is keeping up with our training schedule!

We’re all kicking ourselves that nobody brought a camera. The trail was beautiful — a river runs alongside it. In a few places, rocks jutting out from the hills were covered with waterfalls of icicles. They were starting to melt in the sun, causing them to sparkle more.

Even though it’s an hour drive to get to the beginning of the trail, it was well worth it. We’ll definitely run there again!