Winter running: Which way is the ski lodge?

You probably can’t tell by the title of this blog, but I live in Michigan. I love my home state, but it has one major problem – and no I’m not talking about the Detroit Lions.

Winters.

Winters here SUCK.

I grew up in the east coast/mid-Atlantic region, and sure, we had winter. But it’s just…different here. Yes, it snowed and sleeted and iced in Baltimore, and I owned a winter coat and gloves and snow pants. But I don’t remember a bitter, biting, windy, frostbite-inducing cold season that lasted from November to March. Maybe it’s the relative lack of civilization to block the elements, but there’s something about the weather here that makes me want to curl up under a blanket with a giant mug of whiskey hot tea until Memorial Day. Or the 4th of July? This year I wore gloves to a Memorial Day parade.

Sometimes I feel like the only person in the upper Midwest who hates winter. And, even more so, the only runner who hates winter. Most of my running friends revel in running through the cold, snow and ice, with their hearty collections of Gore-Tex, Yaktraxx and creepy wind-blocking face masks. They see it as a badge of honor to come back from a long run with icicles hanging from their winter beards. OK…so maybe I just need some female running friends.

But no matter how hard I try, I can’t learn to tolerate it, much less love it. Cold-weather running and I just do not get along. I’d actually prefer to run on a 90-degree day than a 20-degree day. Compounding (or perhaps contributing to) my hatred of the cold is the fact that I have Raynaud’s Phenomenon, a circulation disorder that affects the fingers and toes and increases the chance of frostbite. My hands and feet go numb and purple when the temperature drops below about 50F. It’s really uncomfortable and painful. I’ve seen a few doctors for it and they tell me, “you can take medicine for it that will cause lots of dangerous complications, or you can stop being an idiot and stay inside.”

My friends all say they warm up after 15-20 minutes in the cold. For some reason, that never happens to me.

In the past, I did most of my winter running on the treadmill. Last season I found myself in a situation where my only option for fitting in runs was at lunchtime, and I didn’t have access to a treadmill at work. So I decided I needed to “man up” (OK I definitely need some female running friends) and learn how to run in Michigan. I went to REI and spent a small fortune on a running jacket, tights, shoe treads, a headband, a mask, a headlamp, re-usable hand warmers, and puffy down gloves. Yes, you read that right – I run in freaking SKI GLOVES. I look like a clown.  But the astronaut gloves, combined with the hand warmers, work to keep my fingers from turning black and falling off in the 40 minutes I’m out on the roads.

Needless to say, I have no interest in ever actually going skiing. Unless there’s a ski lodge with a stocked bar that I can sit at while everyone else skis.

Today it was 19F when I started my 9-mile run, and 17F when I finished. I couldn’t run from home because my route is along a wide open field, and there’s nothing to block the wind. So I drove to the gym, parked there, ran 6 miles, stopped at my car for a gel, promptly said “f this” and finished the last 3 miles inside, on the treadmill.

OK, so I’m not quite a cold weather runner just yet.

But at least I got to watch the Detroit Lions game while running – and they have much bigger problems than I do.