Posted on 02/02/2019 12:47:26 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
You may be bundled up during the polar vortex that’s sweeping the nation, but for some outdoor enthusiasts, it was the perfect temperature for this year’s Arrowhead 135 ultramarathon.
The a race is purposely held in late January or early February each year to line up with what they hope is the coldest temperatures of the year. It runs roughly 135 miles between International Falls, Minnesota, to Lake Vermillion in Minnesota along the arrowhead State Trail. This year, they were right on the money, as temperatures dropped as low as -30 degrees Fahrenheit.
“It’s supposed to be coupled with this time of year,” race director Ken Krueger told Runner’s World. “It’s really cold on the skin.”
There were 146 competitors this year split between the four disciplines allowed in the race: running, cycling, skiing, and kick-sledding. Seventy-five riders, 64 runners, four skiers, and three kick sledders started the race.
As you can imagine, the frigid conditions wore on the racers from the moment they set off at 7 a.m. Monday.
“I was out there for 21 hours,” Don Gabrielson, who fat biked this year’s event, told Runner’s World. “I did get on the edge of hypothermia at the end, but it always amazes me how much heat your body produces. Unless you stop. You can’t stop, or at least not stop for long.”
Many runners still had to carry provisions and survival equipment with them, which could get a little difficult all bundled up. And even with the mittens and all of the high-tech, cold weather gear—plus duct tape on the face, in some cases—the cold weather still got to them.
(Excerpt) Read more at runnersworld.com ...
Jim Fixx died of a heart attack while on a run in his 40s.
What you don't mention is that all of the males in his family died at young ages in their 40s from heart attacks. It was hereditary, not the running itself.
Not everyone dies in their 40s from running and to imply that, is disingenuous.
The coldest I ever ran in was a 10-mile training run in 54 degrees below zero which included the wind chill, in Kansas City, MO. The actual temperature by itself was quite a bit below zero but I don't remember what the exact temperature was.
The only adverse affect I experienced was it burnt the skin on the tops of my thighs, like sunburning them. The skin peeled off in a week and I was back to normal.
In the forty years I raced and trained competitively, I never wore sweats or long pants. Always running shorts.
As the article explains, most people don't realize that your body produces a great amount of heat when running and keeps you toasting warm if you cover your upper torso, you head, and your hands, where most of your heat escapes. And you don't stop for any length of time. My biggest fear was slipping a falling on the snow or ice and breaking an ankle or a leg and freezing to death before I could get help.
Your thighs have the largest arteries in the body running through them so they are just fine without covering them.
Most long-distance runners prefer to run in cooler or cold weather because the heat you generate doesn't overtake the body's ability to deal with it. Running in hot weather can be much riskier as far as trying to cool off, especially if it's humid.
But being out in that kind of cold for 135 miles is for people with bigger balls that I have. :-)
Then a lot of people I know should be dead right now.
My first memory, as a kid was waking up and seeing a glass bottle of milk on the kitchen table with the top popped off, and the milk frozen in an upside down "J" shape.
Years later, my parents told me I had been sleeping in the hottest room in the house. It was 42 below zero in the kitchen that morning.
No worries about pipes freezing.. There weren't any.
We got water from the brook a hundred yards or so in back of the house after chopping a hole in the ice every day.
We were in an old logging camp building. You could see between the boards on the walls. No big deal.
40 years ago Jim Fixx wrote The Complete Book of Running. Some of it is outdated but it’s still a great read.
I’ve been running for 22 years and still find his book worth reading.
No longer held, unfortunately.
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