Frozen Faces, Slower Paces

            In general, my body runs hot. I wait as long as I can to turn on the heater in the winter, and I have high electric bills in the summer because I must have the AC blasting at night. So I embrace the cold, but this has been the coldest and snowiest year in Syracuse since I moved here, and it is not even close. Nonetheless, I have still found myself out there every day plodding along for a run in the snow or extreme cold.

            Between the two, the snow bothers me much more than the extreme cold. This is mainly due to the poor footing that comes with the snow. There is a wide variety of footing from firm and crunchy, to sandy, to slush. Some are not that bad for running, specifically the packed and crunchy snow, but once the salt gets to it, these varieties usually suck. It is hard to get a grip, and my feet are constantly sliding. The variety that is slushier also sticks to shoes more, so it is like running with ankle weights.

            So although it can be miserable running in these snowy conditions, it no doubt strengthens the legs and hips. When I finish a snowy run, whether it is super slushy or mostly packed snow, I always feel it more in my muscles, specifically my hamstrings and hips. So snow may not be great for speed training, but it is good for becoming an overall stronger runner.

            Worst of all with the snow is the increase in mess. Snow tends to get cleared where the wheels are most, and this can lead to slush building up in the middle of the lane, and when cars scoot over to graciously give us runners space, they end up splashing us with cold slush as well. Obviously, I would rather not be hit by the car, but getting doused in gray sludge is not ideal either. (I also worry about taking a wrong footstep and slipping into the road right in front of a car.)

I got a new pair of shoes recently. They were bright electric green, close to the color of a tennis ball, and they have beautiful blue accents, but they did not even make it through a run before their beauty was tarnished with slush and salt stains. It was so sad. Their beauty would not last forever, but it would have been nice for them to look good for more than one day.

Now for the extreme cold. It started with a negative six degree run, but it has stayed consistently cold for weeks at a time now. With real and feels like temperatures plunging into the negatives. My barometer for real cold is if my nose hair feels like it starts to freeze after a few seconds outside. Typically this occurs in temperatures close to zero.

On Sunday, I ran in the coldest temperature yet, negative nine, and with the minimal three mile per hour wind, it said that it felt like negative eighteen. I think this was blown a little out of proportion, but it was cold. Despite the cold, I wear so many clothes that I still end up sweating.

On Saturday, I barely made it out of the parking lot before I thought I was going to burn up. Of course, it just took one turn of the corner to be going into the wind, and immediately feeling a cold burn upon my face, but that is the thing. It is only my face that gets cold really. I am so layered that the cold and wind do not reach any other part of my body.

On my body, I have an UnderArmour cold gear thermal turtleneck that I wear. It is basically impenetrable on its own. On top of that I wear a sweatshirt, then a hoodie, and I top all of that off with a jacket. It is stiff and heavy, but it is perfectly warm. I still end up sweating every time, and thankfully it is not enough sweat to freeze my body. I literally had sweat stains on the bends of my arms on Saturday, so through four layers of thick clothes sweat was getting out.

On my legs, I have a pair of thermal lined tights as my base layer, and then on top of that, I have a thicker pair of tights. Then for my feet, I just wear a pair of thicker hiking socks. On my head, I have a new balaclava that has a removable mouth part, a beanie over that to make sure no air is getting to my ears, and my hoodie hood on top of that. I also bought an $80 pair of mittens from REI that are the best gloves I have ever had. My hands never get cold now. So my face is the only part of my body getting any air on it.

My face goes through a wide array of feelings. The initial cold that first day it was negative six was hard to get over. My face hurt badly, but I had the face covering on so only my eyes were visible. The other problem with this is that I ended up breathing my own exhale, which after a while gives me a headache. So eventually I took my mask down, but my face was so moist from all the water vapor in my breath that my eye brows, mustache, and small amount of hair protruding from my hat froze. So at that point, I was committed to keeping my mouth covering down.

After this run, none of them felt nearly as bad. Although I was worried this past Saturday with the higher winds, that it was going to be brutal, and at times it was, but it was short lived. When going straight into the wind, it has a bite. It feels like being cut with tiny blades. Just quick little slashes across the cheeks. When I run when it is snowing in this level of cold, and then the wind blows hard, the snow feels like tiny shards of glass being drawn across my face. It will wake you up. Normally, these feelings are short lived though. I did shave my mustache off, so sadly most of my freezing is done. It is unfortunate that when people’s faces freeze, they end up looking look ice princesses. Like we are out there doing something hard, and I come back looking like I should be hanging out with Elsa. It’s brutal.

The other fun aspect of running in the cold and snow is frozen eye lashes. This can really add to the princess look, but it also makes it harder to see. Then the ice starts to blend together, and it becomes impossible to open my eyes completely, but as of yet, they have not completely frozen shut. One day, I would like to see if I can get my eyes to freeze shut, but right outside of my apartment, not miles away from home.

On Saturday, two different people plowing their driveway said something to me as I passed about being dedicated and cheering me on. Personally, I do not think of it as dedication. I just think of it as something I have to do. It is not a choice. It is a need that must be met to make me feel fulfilled for the day. For better or worse. So no, the weather does not matter. I will be out there. I am not even training for anything. I just like running. Also, recently, I watched My Octopus Teacher, and the guy said that after swimming in the cold water every day, his body started to crave it, and I am the same way. I crave being out there in the cold now.

The Upstate New York winters can be brutal and depressing. It feels like we are living in the tone of a Noah Kahan song. There a dull melancholy to it all. There is less daylight. It is well below freezing, and the ground is covered with snow repeatedly, but I find life in my runs. It shed away some of the darkness, and it shows that the cold is not something that needs to be feared. It is something that needs to be embraced. It builds character, and it builds strength. Not just strength within your muscles, but also strength within your mind, because if you can trudge through the slushy snow in sub-zero temperatures, then you can trudge through any run or crisis life throws at you. You just have to bundle up and keep going.