Some Cold Runs

Anyone feel like a little group therapy, sharing your stories of really cold runs? This cold snap makes me think of some memorable winter runs from the distant and not-so-distant past...

People often ask "do you run in this weather?" and wonder whether the really cold air freezes your lungs. I don't know at what point that becomes likely, but I've never felt even close to that point. The coldest actual air temperature I've ever run in was -3 F. I didn't know it was that cold until I got home. that was a long time ago, but I remember that it didn't feel that bad -- except that my hat froze from the moisture making its way to the hat's surface from my head. I think I also had icicles on my eyebrows.

One of the coldest runs I ever did was barely a year ago. I think the temperature was about 10 F, and I had a pair of gloves that looked warm but didn't really work well at all, and I was running home from Cleveland Circle right into the teeth of a Northwest wind. After a mile, I couldn't feel my hands. Normally when that happens, it only takes another few minutes to start generating enough heat to bring the feeling back and then my hands ache a little bit and then everything is fine. But not this time. This time, my hands stayed completely numb. No feeling at all. I couldn't even tell whether I was wearing gloves or not. I ended up stopping at Newton City Hall for 15 minutes until the feeling came back -- the first and only time I've had to stop a run because of the cold.

One memorable cold run -- really stupid in retrospect -- was a 14-mile long run that I did from downtown Boston. It was probably 15 or more years ago, and Ann and I had taken our kids downtown on a Sunday morning in January to see technicians bring down an office building by imploding it. It was about 20 degrees out, and we stood in the cold with a crowd of other people for about an hour to witness 15 seconds of destruction. I had dressed for running, plus an extra jacket, so that I could leave the car with Ann and run home. After an hour in the cold, I started that run already very chilled. I finished the run with a sense of profound fatigue. I think I slept all afternoon, and then got sick with bronchitis or something.

The longest, coldest I ever felt on a run was also the result of really poor planning. My club was doing a training run on the Boston Marathon course. A bunch of cars drove out to Hopkinton, and then a bunch of runners ran back to Newton -- about 18 miles. It happened that we didn't have enough drivers, so I decided to drive out, and then carry my keys with me. My idea was that I would run halfway with everyone else and then turn around and run back to my car.

It was about 20-25 degrees when we started from Hopkinton, but it actually felt really pleasant because there was a "Montreal Express" wind at our backs, blowing about 15-20 mph. After several miles, we were toasty enough to unzip our windbreakers and feel the sweat in our gloves and hats.

At 9 miles, I turned around.

The next hour was 60 minutes of steadily increasing misery. The wind bit into the exposed skin of my face. The sweat that I had worked up running with the wind made the cold feel much worse. And I felt like I had to work twice as hard against the wind to cover each mile back towards my car. Plus, I had no company. It was just awful.

As most people know, the marathon course begins with a long downhill from Hopkinton town green. As I climbed back up the hill, I cursed the town fathers of Hopkinton for building their houses on top of a mountain. Likewise, I cursed the BAA for moving the start up the hill, and for having the idea of the marathon in the first place. Most of all, I cursed myself for my inexperience in starting a winter run with the wind at my back. I don't make that mistake anymore.

So what are the coldest runs you've done?