By the title, you can surmise that I did get out for a run this morning and it was cold. 10* with the wind chill at 6:00am. That’s no joke. I was kicking myself because after the RD yesterday, there was no way I could sit out today. Therefore, I mosied out of bed and got dressed. I was appropriately bundled with light layers. I thought double socks would be bothersome, but I noticed no change. I went out with my double gloves not imagining a problem would arise. Wrong.
The run was typical in the sense that after a couple miles of shaking the junk out, I hit a nice rhythm. The cold had no effect on my hands at this point. Just when things were rolling along I had to stop for the annoying restroom break. I tried one near my stopping point. Door locked. Bleh. Then I went over to the sure thing, The Boathouse. In the 2+ years that I’ve been running in Central Park, this public restroom has never been locked. Today was a first. Now I was angry and in dire need. There was no way I was cutting short a run in 10* weather. Just the thought made me contemplate doing whatever it took, wherever it took to take care of business. At those temps, I didn’t see any cops around. Before going down that road, I took one last chance about 1/2 mile out of my way. A little snack shop with a restroom in the park by the Alice in Wonderland statute. Success.
Now, I’ve lost a good 20 minutes on this excursion so I needed to hustle up to get in my intended mileage and not be ridiculously late for work. At this point, I still felt really good and continued to do so for another 3 miles. Legs were churning fast as all I could think about was move faster, get home, get warm. It was during the final stretch, ironically with the sun bright and shining, that my hands rebelled. I had never experienced hand discomfort like that before. Against my better judgement, I actually stopped with only 2 miles to go and jammed my hands in my pockets. After a few minutes of realizing this was a dumb strategy, I trudged on. Hands were, if anything, even colder now. The tips of my fingers stung uncontrollably.
I eventually made it home and the warm shower caused more pain than the cold. It took 15 long minutes for the pain to subside. I was so ticked off because I had a very solid run, but it was overshadowed by my hands. Needless to say, I’m on the hunt for another pair.
The results were ok: 8.26 miles at 8:36 pace. BTW, no leg pain during the run. Will ice it again tonight.
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marathonmaiden December 23, 2009 at 4:17 pm | #1 Reply | Quote yeah it was about 10 or 11* with windchill for me today too. i totally feel you about cold hands! i have a pair of goretex mittens that have been working pretty well so far in the cold. and just a word of caution: never put numb hands under warm/hot water: a surefire way to scald yourself because you can’t feel how hot the water actually is!
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a marathoner December 23, 2009 at 5:19 pm | #2 Reply | Quote Yep. Lesson learned on the numb hands, warm water experience. That was awful.
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Ian December 23, 2009 at 5:29 pm | #3 Reply | Quote ‘Taking care of business’ – that’s one way of describing it but an outdoors attempt may have been a big problem in those temperatures! I’ll see what I can find on keeping hands warm, there may be some helpful info out there. Have you tried biking gloves? They can be a windproof shield as well as warm, or you can slip some extra thermal ones underneath too.
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Jess December 23, 2009 at 9:52 pm | #4 Reply | Quote My hands get cold even when it’s 40*. Ouch!
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