Running in Cold Weather
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As the temperature decreases I have noticed that my motivation for running has conversely decreased. I’ll admit it, I do not like the cold. You never hear anyone say, “I love this cold weather, I wish it was a little colder” or “I’m so happy its finally cold! I hope it never warms up again!” I’m not a veterinarian, but I did take a class about animals once and heard that humans are warm blooded animals. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is trying to make themselves feel better about their choice of area of habitation. However, no matter how cold it is where I chose to live, I have to remind myself, “Even though I dislike the cold weather, I have running to do and goals to accomplish.”
I somehow have to motivate myself to get out there and run. One way I do this is by comparing myself to other people. I go to weather.com and see all of the other places in the United States that are colder than where I am and imagine that there have to be some people running in that cold weather. However, comparing myself to normal runners only takes my motivation so far. I need the stories of extreme runners who push their bodies outside of the realm of normal.
One of my recent motivations has been the 127 people who have completed one of the coldest races in the world, the North Pole Marathon. This race is held at the geographic North Pole and is run entirely on 6 to 12 ft of ice on top of about 12,000 ft of Arctic Ocean. Guinness Book of World Records ranks the race as the Northern most Marathon. Runners set off with running shoes, trail boots, snowshoes, and trek poles with sharpened ends or rifles to ward against polar bears. These people have completed a race that no human should be able to run. They must have uncanny mental toughness.
I have decided to use this fact that running in the cold is 99% mental toughness and have told myself that I am running in Tahiti during the middle of the summer. It has worked for me but I think people are becoming confused when they see me running down the street, in board shorts, no T-shirt, and arm floatys around my biceps; in the middle of winter. I just tell them, “It’s all in the mind man.” That alleviates their confusion.
Tags: cold weather, extreme running