It was particularly nasty outside today. It was -18C/-4F, it has been snowing off and on for the last three days, and it's cloudy. To top it off there was a chilly wind which thankfully we only had to face for about 1/3 of the race.

Dawn and I stayed in my van until about 10 minutes before the race started, and then ventured outside to do some kind of warm-up. Dawn and I took a few pictures and enjoyed telling masked racers to "smile"! I had inadvertently left my face-covering scarf at home and was a little apprehensive that my face was going to get chilly. Dave C. kindly offered me the use of a neon pink neck warmer and I was very grateful. Don't ask him why he had a neon pink neck warmer in his car...

You do what you have to to survive the cold

I hopped up and down with several other racers trying to keep warm and we all laughed at how crazy we were. I couldn't hear George the Race Director's instructions before the race, because even though the crowd quieted down, the crunch of snow under feet hopping to stay warm was too loud. George blew his whistle and we were off into the wind, at the top of a ridge.

Barry does what he can to stay warm for the race to come

The wind whipped right through my cloth mitts, but I had doubled them up, so my hands never got badly cold. I had to alternate having my mouth and nose covered with tucking the neck warmer under my chin, to keep my glasses from fogging up. I had rubbed some Anti-Fog goop on my glasses before leaving the house, but they still fogged up. They did clear up rather quickly though, and the fog didn't freeze into frost on them as it has at other times. Even when the glasses weren't fogged, the race was a big white blur, as the cloud of my breath often obscured the white, snow covered path.

I had to keep blinking to keep ice blobs from forming on my eyelashes and sticking them together. Do you think God made our tears salty to so our eyes are harder to freeze shut? One ice drop in the corner of my right eye made it to the end of the race - I plucked it out with my fingers.

This race course is a double loop. It had been shortened somewhat (from 8 to 6km) due to the extremity of the weather, saving us the trouble of climbing two huge hills I usually dread. I was very happy that I wasn't lapped for once.

My toes felt like big ice chunks for the first while, and seemed to get worse the first 10 minutes into the race. For a short while they didn't feel like toes at all, just almost-numb big knobs. I told myself that if they didn't warm up by the turn-off point for the short option that I would head straight for the clock, short course or no.

Dang it, my toes warmed up just 5 minutes before I got to the short-race option point. About a minute after I made the deal with myself, the toes started to tingle and thaw. I actually stopped and did a systems check half-way through, at 20 minutes. Yep, all body parts functioning a-ok, so I carried on and did the darn loop all over again. The second loop was actually a little better at first, because I had finally warmed up. My hands were sweating like crazy in my mitts, and I was thankful they were breathable. Leah, a starting-over runner was right on my tail throughout the second loop, and we commiserated together over hills and along the frozen creek. It was nice to have some company.

The volunteers were just amazing today. I don't know how they were able to just stand out there in the cold and wind, but I really appreciate them being there. There were lots of flags that got trampled in the snow, and I'm glad the volunteers were there to keep us from going off course. I haven't run that course in so much snow in a long time. The footing was quite variable, but I didn't encounter much ice.

The finish line volunteers stay warm

On the second time down a very steep hill I made it down the hill fine, but did a cheerleader's split at the bottom. The ground just came up a bit fast. The snow was soft and I was all warmed up, so I just popped up and kept on going.

Finally in the last uphill stretch towards the finish I told Leah to go past me. The backs of my legs just didn't want to do this any more. I was very thankful for the short course today! It felt good to have gone out and conquered the weather once again.

Nadine and Alan trying to stay warm

I yahoo'd my way into the finish, and Dawn and I headed straight to the hall to change and have soup.