Lone Cold

Today is my first of five 20 mile runs in my marathon training program. The forecasts last night ranged from 5 degrees to 12 below, in some outlying areas. I wake up about 5:45, and the wireless display for my thermometer outside reads 7. It’s possible it is a couple degrees higher than the actual temperature, because it is in a sheltered area that gets a lot of sun from the south, so the bricks may retain heat from the day. Plus, I saw a 2-3 temperature difference between my car’s thermomoter and this one. But I’m glad to see a reading above zero, because the flag across the street that my neighbor has on a 30 foot flagpole is flapping around a bit, which indicates stronger winds than I expected.
I have all my gear downstairs, so I decide to go heavy. Tights and windpants, and 2 pairs of socks, which I don’t normally do. I wear a fleece type zippered sweater (100% polyester) under my windbreaker. This is one of my heavier jackets. I got it for writing a blog for www.nbwebexpress when I ran my first marathon in Chicago in 2005. It is a stiffer material, and pretty wind resistant, by well vented, too. I have a balaclava type hood, under a lined fleece cap, and a neoprene, vented mask that fits to my nose. Plus, I lather on Aquaphor ointment to give a little protection to any areas of my face left exposed. I wear two pairs of gloves, and I have handwarmers to carry inside them.
The last time we ran in weather this cold, carrying my usual 6 0z Fuel belt bottles, I found they froze too easily. So this time, I am using another water bottle holder that carries one larger one in back of me. My hope is that the larger volume of water will not freeze as quickly, and it won’t be as exposed to the wind as much (turns out, I forgot the scientific act that wind chill does not affect actual freezing temperature, only the way it feels on your skin). It’s hard to strap on my GPS with all this gear on, but I do it quickly, so I can get moving. It is close to 6:30, and the plan is for me to complete as much of an 8 mile loop as possible, and my wife and 2 people from her tri club will meet me running the other direction, starting out at 7:30. A boxy car passes me before I run a block – I am guessing it is Rich, who said he would bring bagels.
It is still dark out, and the route I take is into a prevailing wind, so I feel pretty stiff and cold. I keep wondering if I am dressed right, and try to jog my memory for times when I ran when it was this cold before. At first it feels like I am going slower than a 9:30 pace, but when I get to 4 miles, my time is somewhere between 34 and 35 minutes. So, I think I am 15-20 seconds fast per mile.
When I reach the point where I turn and will have the wind at my back, I reach for my water bottle. I feel a crusty material around the nozzle, and as I pull it out, I realize, I must have left it open, and splashing drops have frozen to the bottle and the water belt. Luckily, I can open the cap, and get a drink of icy cold water. I need it - I can feel my top wet with sweat, so I unzip my jacket to let it evaporate a little. If I am on a run longer that 7 miles in weather colder than 25 degrees, I invariably find my middle layers crusted with ice when I finish the run, and in cold enough weather and/or long enough runs, I feel it during the run.
It is starting to lighten up, and I wr where I will meet my wife and her friends. I choose this route because it has hills, which I want to prepare me for Boston. There is one particularly steep hill about 1.5 miles from my house. It would be a shame if the group hit that hill before I did – because then I would turn around to run in their direction, and I would not cover it on this loop. I make it a goal to hit that hill before they do, so I can double back with them and run it the other way, too. I hit that hill, and I keep looking for them. I have already had a Goo packet at 35-40 minutes, but when I drank the water, it was pretty frozen. I have a few other bottles with water and Gatorade in my garage, so they shouldn’t be frozen. The closer I get to the starting point without seeing them, the more determined I am to make it home so I can swap for unfrozen fluids. How long they will stay that way on my second 8 mile loop remains to be seen. I am hitting paces between 7:50 and 8:15 consistently, so I am almost a minute per mile faster than my goal pace. I figure this group will want to run slower, so I can take a rest then.
There a couple of streets where it is possible to take an alternate route, so I take care to look down them, just in case. Then, I get to my corner, and I see Rich’s boxy Pilot, and another similar one driven by Pam. I have a keyring-size garage door opener in my jacket pocket, and I open the door, figuring that the other runners will figure it is me, and come out and start.
I have some water and a Goo pack, and open the door to the house and call out. No one answers, so after a quick ceck, I realize that they must have already started, and we did not cross paths, like I intended. Shoot! I was looking forward to having company for at least the middle part of my run. When I look at the GPS, it is about 7:45 – later than I thought, but this group always starts late. Okay – if they have a 5 minute head start, and run at a 10 minute pace, how long will it take me to catch them at an 8 minute pace. It’s too cold for me to do the math, so I just start running. I take a short cut that means I miss the steep hill, but there are others. I keep looking for them, and at a street about 2 miles along where my wife takes a shorter route, I call out her name. I get to the far point of my loop, and I realize that by chasing them, I just distracted myself for a good chunk of my run. There is another shortcut I can take, but it means I would run a half mile on a busy road, and miss big rolling hills in area-lined luxury subdivision. I give up the hunt for sightseeing.
This is the direction I usually run this route, so it is more familiar. I walk for a few hundred yards while I drink slushy Gatorade. I still can’t figure out what point on the route I could have missed them. Even now, when I laying off the accelerator, I am still hitting well under my 9 minute goal pace. I try opening my jacket for a little while when the wind is at my back, but my tops are so soaked with sweat, it feels cold. When the wind angles towards me, I have to full up the face mask. This redirects my breath to the upper part of my face, so I know my eyebrows are frozen, so maybe it will damper the Mono-brow affect. But, then I realize that my eyelashes are also holding clumps of ice. Trying to blink, or brush them off does not make it any better. Now I start to think about my next stop at my garage. I can drink some water, take my 4th GU pack (I had one right before the run). Maybe I can call ahead, if my wife has finished her run, and she can bring me a warm washcloth, so I can finish the run. If I have to go inside the house, I will get too overheated. What I would love is of she could bring a short sleeve shirt and a long sleeve short. I have another jacket hung up in the garage. My upper body is always the sweatiest, so if I get dry stuff on, the last 5 miles should not be the usual frosty experience.
I make a turn north, and run smack into the snout of a Doberman aimed at my crotch. Damn it!
The few times I run this route this late in the day, about one out of 3 or four times, this old lady has this HUGE Doberman out. He is wearing a leash, but she is NEVER holding it. The dog is big, and he insists on coming over to check you out. He must be old, but he is still cut. One time she had duct tape on hios foot, which decreases my trust level of her even lower. He apologizes, and the shot of adrenaline I get makes up for the cooldown effect of stopping in my tracks. Once he is secure, and I pick up my pace, and now the adrenaline really starts to carry me.
(Note to self. If no cars are coming and it is after 7:30 ALWAYS take that turn wide. One of these times, I might surprise Bruiser more than he surprises me.)
At about a half mile out, I call home. My daughter answers, but Laura is not there. Huh? If they left before me I could get back on the first loop, I thought they would be inside having cocoa and bagels.
I come around the final turns, and I can see similarly clad people in front of my house, with spandex and skull caps. So either the Blue Man Group is scouting suburban locations, or Laura, Pam and Rich just finished. I dash in the garage Laura has just opened, and they stare at my frozen eyelashes. I get some water, and GU, and we discuss the possible places where we missed each other. I go in and get the dry shorts, and Laura offers me a dry cap. I keep all my cold weather outer gear in the laundry room off the garage, so I am able to quickly cobble together a costume change for my third set.
I dash out to run a 5 mile, loop –my first destination the steep hill I missed last time. Even though it is not sunny, I put on sunglasses to keep my eyelashes from freezing again. The problem is that vapor from my breath quickly frost them over. I court danger for a half block or so running with this diminished visibility, but when I get near intersections, or parked cars, or oncoming traffic, I pop them up again.
I have kept a pretty good pace off that hill, and my turnaround spot for this mini-loop comes much quicker, and that’s when I have some Gatorade. After about 2.5 miles however, I see my pace drop to 10 minutes per mile. That will happen when you run a 46 minute 10K in the middle of a 20 mile run. Luckily, I don’t feel the effects of the cold too badly. I pull up onto my block at about 2:54 – well ahead of the 3 hour time my 9 minute-mile pace would project.
I would have liked to have run with the group for a while, but one of the reasons I gravitated toward running as exercise is because I did not want to be dependent on a group (like basketball), an instructor (Martial Arts), or a place (weightlifting at a gym) for my workouts. And, I wanted the one that was least dependent on weather. Well, today’s run lived up to that. Sometimes you have someone beside you in the tough miles, and sometimes you have to go it alone.