There is an area on the Madison isthmus known as snow emergency zone. In the winter, residents in the zone are allowed to park anywhere it's legal, while the rest of the city must park on alternate sides of the street depending on the day. When a storm hits, the city declares a "snow emergency" and those of us in isthmus must adhere to the same alternate parking rules. In fact, the city declared an emergency due to the recent storm.
Running in an urban area, it's tough to find good routes that you can regularly run. There's many bike paths, but nothing really meant for running loops. So I made this one up. The run above perfectly circumvents the snow emergency zone. It's great little run, about 7miles total. You run along both Lake Monona and Mendota and the Yahara River. There also a little bit of the UW campus, particularly the Memorial Union Terrace. I added a little extra on the one shown above. In honor of our storm, I plan to run as much of the route as can tonight.
Update: I wrongly assumed that others in my neighborhood would clear their sidewalks like I did. I struggled to find clear routes, but worst of all were the street crossings. If they were clear (rare), the snowmelt filled in the gap with water. So I was leaping either over snow mounds, or large puddles. I felt like a gazelle. Eventually, I decided to head up to the Capitol square, assuming that the State would clear their sidewalks. They did. So I stayed there and ran around and around and around again until it was time to run home. I got in 8 miles when it was all said and done.
