Seemingly out of nowhere, Mother Nature decided to dump a half a foot of snow on the Northern New Jersey area on Halloween weekend. It just so happens that was the weekend of the annual Passaic Valley Rotary 5K River Run.
On Saturday, Oct. 29, the snow fell hard, fast and heavy. And when I say "heavy", I mean "heavy" and not "heavily" (though it was that, too). The sheer weight of the wet snow collecting on trees and power lines wreaked absolute havoc as both came down at an alarming rate throughout the region. Thousands upon thousands of people were suddenly without electricity. Somehow, I was spared. I was supposed to attend a friend's Halloween party in Demarest, but he had to cancel it. His power went out that afternoon (and didn't come back until days later!). I was all dressed up as Ace Frehley with nowhere to go, though I did end up going to another friend's place in Woodland Park.
When I got up the next morning, I was all set to run my first Halloween race. I reapplied my Kiss makeup and headed to the Little Falls recreation center. But when I showed up, there was no one there. The place was locked up. I headed to the local Dunkin Donuts with my iPad so I could get online and see if there was an update. Sure enough, the race was canceled. Apparently, the roads were a lot worse than I had thought, with ice, snow and dangerous conditions with downed trees and power lines.
There was nothing else to do but head out for my usual long run, then. That's when I was truly able to see the severe damage this freak storm caused. Plus, I got to run in my Halloween costume after all.
When I got home, there was a text message on my phone - "I just saw Ace Frehley running down Main Street."
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