14K

Good morning (err, yes 2 in the morning) and Salaam to All!

I went for my first big run this weekend. Saturday morning my co-marathoner and I went for a 9 mile run, which is 14.4 km. It was a combination of running and walking. So here is what it is like to run when it is thirty below: difficult.

The first thing you need to do is dress properly. I wore a couple of layer, silk long johns, followed by a fleece layer, and a Gore Tex outer shell. On the feet were wool socks, sneakers and on top of sneakers were slip on spikes. On the head is a balaclava and a neck protector.

Outside things start to freeze pretty fast. First your eyelashes get all crusted over with ice. Then you develop a layer of ice all over your head and mits and anywhere where there is 1 layer between you and the outside. Because you are sweating so much and releasing so much 'steam', you become quite hot, the bad part is when you start to cool down. When I got in after being outdoor for 2 hours 15 minutes, there was ice inside my fleece and silk layer, which even I thought was weird since I was wearing snowpants!

...Just for the record, I am so sore right now it isn't even funny...

Anyway so we headed out, trying to do 9 minutes of running followed by 1 of walking. I struggled a lot. At first I felt like I couldn't breathe, and I was panicking a bit. I was having all sorts of negative and self defeating thoughts. Here's an important tip if you ever go running: don't eat dairy products beforehand. Dairy is well known to cause mucus and other grossness, and it all comes up when you are running. I ate yogurt for breakfast, so for the first 30 minutes of running I was coughing and not feeling good at all. My co-runner wanted to stop at the airport and call me a cab, but I really wanted to finish and say I was able to do it. And I was, despite the difficulty.

I found a really cool running website, which has some good tips for running in cold weather. Now that I have done a big run, I know what I need to do to practice and get better: I have to work on stamina and endurance and on positive biofeedback. It is about your mind and body.

If anyone is interested in sponsoring me for the marathon please email me. We are running for the cure for cancer. I am not going to be asking anyone directly to sponsor me, but if you do want to contribute I'd be very happy. Between myself and my 2 fellow relay runners, I think we can raise quite a bit of coin. I'll keep you posted.