Running in the time of Hypothermia

So I currently can’t feel the tips of three of my fingers, but I’m going to assume that it’s because of the amount of guitar I’ve been playing lately. Even though it may have felt like it at the time, I don’t think I’ve sustained any permanent nerve damage in my fingertips. Yay for me.

In case you’re not a Canberran, you might not be aware of the insanely cold mornings we’ve been having recently. Last week the temperature has been steadily down below zero every morning, some days tending closer to minus seven or minus eight. I’m just going by what everyone else has been saying, because although I’ve been in the habit of getting to work at seven am every day, I never spend more than five minutes outside. When I’m heading for the bus, I’m generally running anyway.

This morning, I guess it was about minus five. I certainly felt it. I went out late because it’s hard to get up early on a freezing cold morning. Guess I was probably out the door a little after 7:30. Two pairs of pants, trackies over compression shorts. Sports bra, crop top, tank top, jacket. Headband and a hat. Fingerless gloves.

I think I need some gloves that have fingers. I know I’m used to the fingerless gloves by now, but this morning was brutal. I figured that my fingers would recover after a couple of kilometres when I’d warmed up a bit, and I guess they did for a little while, but heading towards Belconnen the temperature started to go down. And my fingers started to hurt. Not in the kind of way I can ignore. Something a little closer to screaming agony. I unzipped my jacket and tried to warm my hands one by one with a little upper-chest skin contact, but there’s something not quite right about running along with your hand down your top, grimly clutching a boob in one frozen hand while you try to ignore the other. The mechanics are off. It’s not the most efficient running technique in the world. By the time the pain really set in I was about forty-five minutes from home, so I turned around at the seven and a half kilometre mark and headed back in the other direction.

Things got better, the closer I got to Gungahlin. Must have been the sun finally doing it’s job. Everything was numb by the time I got in the door. It’s mornings like this that really make me appreciate hot showers.

Actually, all things considered, this morning’s run was pretty gruesome. I saw a frozen dead mousie on the path on the way out. On the way back, I saw a magpie in the middle of a frozen dead mousie breakfast.

I got about ten metres, then I threw up.

I’m not usually this sensitive, but I guess I was also running a bit harder than I should have been, just to keep the blood pumping.

About a month to go until the City 2 Surf. I really need to start planning what I’m going to wear. I feel ashamed that race outfits and playlists are my primary concern, rather than the actual training. Oh well.