Two weeks ago me and 3 of my good friends climbed into a car and traveled down to St. George for a 50 mile - 5 man relay. When we signed up we thought that going to St. George in December would be fantastic! Warm weather and sunny skies would be a great change from the cold dreary Salt Lake weather.
Well, we were wrong. But just about the weather. The weather report called for cold in the 30's with a chance of snow. WHAT? SNOW? In St. George? Crazy. Let's just say that we learned that St. George only has ONE snow plow and that most/all people do not even have a snow shovel. That's how much it snows in St. George. Well mother nature picked the perfect weekend...well, not really.
My team members included Tera, her husband Jason, Jen Q., me and Laura. Laura was the wife of an attorney that works for Jason. We were happy to have a 5th but a little worried we might be..ahh..a tad bit offensive to her. When we are all together there just isn't any taboo subject which we are well aware isn't every one's cup of tea.
We were prepared for the cold, we brought everything we had to keep us warm. The morning of the race we picked up our #5. Well Laura turned out to be absolutely perfect and HILARIOUS!! I swear she was Jen Q's spirit sister! They had the same sense of humor, said the same things and when they laughed they squeaked the same. The team was awesome, funny and more then anything my laughing muscles were as sore as my running muscles. Did I mention that the three other girls had asthma (exercise induced)? There were inhalers all over the place!
Jason and his 4 running gals.
Our original "outfit" was to be bright yellow shirts. Yeah, they are there.
Ready, set..go
Go JEN GO!
Hi FIVE girls!
No slap bracelet here!
Another exchange and the snow is starting to GO.
I love this picture. Tera is reconsidering the weather and the fact she is going to have to run in the snow. Plus she is worried about her stinky (Jason).
My first leg (I only had two) and off I go.
Yeah, it was a trail of packed snow. What this picture doesn't reflect is the blowing snow. I had a bunch of snow on the side of my head on the left side. I was a little cold but my vest kept my core warm and I wasn't hot, which is most important.
Yeah, I'm waving!
Woot Woot!
The run actually felt great and I ran it much faster then I thought I would. 9:40 min/miles and in the blowing snow on a trail that was ROLLING. Which means I would climb up and steep hill and run down a very steep hill.
What I wore.
The temp was 30 degrees. (2 degrees warmer then Salt Lake!) I wore my warm lined Nike long running pants that have taken me through at least 4 winters. They have a water proof area on the front of the thigh so they never get wet and they are lined so they are toasty! I had on my usual block and tackle running bra and a short sleeve bright yellow shirt. Over that I wore a Lululemon long sleeve (Ice Addict LS). The same one I wore on my Thanksgiving snow run. Of course I bought it last year so they don't even have any Ice Addict shirts.
Running in Idaho.
Over all that I had on this vest.
I bought it at Kohls.
It has been my favorite vest all winter! I wear it over regular clothes for extra warmth and I've worn it over running clothes on a few cold weather runs and it keeps the core warm and is easy to run in. Plus I got it on sale PLUS 20% off. Yeah. Score.
I also wore a thin running hat and some running gloves. I have to say that I really dialed in the cold weather running outfit. If it was a longer run I may have worried about covering what little of my ankles were exposed and had a neck warmer on that I could pull up over my mouth if I was too cold.
Back to the race.
Jen takes off! I ran down Snow Canyon so it was super cold and snowy and it warmed up a touch when we got closer to the city again.
This is the shit that goes on while I suffer during my second run.
Get a few dorks at the state line and shenanigans will happen!
I was suppose to tap the sign. Yeah right. I really don't need my feet soaking wet. Even though they were a touch moist.
Before this pic was taken I was running around puddles and ice and basically hell for runner conditions. After this pic I ran on a road that had a great shoulder and no snow or ice. I hit the "I'm super tired" stage at about mile 5 but luckily I just had a mile to go. Much slower, around 10:30 min/miles. Total miles around 13. Boom.
All done!
I don't have a pic from the finish but we did finish! Had a blast too!
After we dropped off Laura and went back to the condo and we all had hot showers and went to dinner.
In the elevator. HAHA!
The snow outside the condo. Nothing is shoveled because why would they have a snow shovel?? It was definitely an experience getting to the restaurant, but mostly because we were watching other cars all over the place. There is a technique to driving in the snow and it's not "gunning" it up a hill. Thankfully we had Jason's 4 wheel drive and he did great! But I'd lie if we didn't have a few laughs on the way.
This was a perfect get away weekend. I was able to be with wonderful people that are great friends and have a good time. I love getting back to regular life and being a regular single gal in her 40's. Right.
Thanks again for every one's support! The whole transgender husband thing is getting less and less an issue every day but only because of all the love!
What is your trick to running in cold weather?
Next big race?
Blog on.........
PS. YES, I'm still going to put up the Vegas Ragnar Post. I was just...ahhh....distracted a bit.
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