February - Space Coast Runners

THE PASSING LANEWith Ron HoarBrrr…Baby Its Cold Outside!I’m not as addicted to running as I used to be. I know that after our recent January freezing cold spell. My runningsuffered badly, limited to some mid day excursions.You’d think I didn’t know what cold weather is like. Maybe I’m just too familiar with cold having spent thefirst 39 years of my life in Maine. The last couple of years there I did take up casual running. I remember runninga few times on the snow covered streets of the old neighborhood. Then I thought it was “cool”--no punintended--to run for a mile in the snow.I had been living in Texas for several years before I got the running addiction. I know--some might not likethat connotation--but I just can’t think of anything better than being addicted to running.Our recent weather got my memory going. It can get downright cold in Dallas--sometimes. My first cold racewas in a sleet/ice storm in March, 1989. That was just my seventh race. Under the conditions it may have beenjust as well that I was slowed to an 8 minute pace with an ankle problem. As the 10k race began conditionsdeteriorated and it got plain slippery on the ice glazed pavement. The race winner in a 30:38 was running forthe Nike Boston Athletic Team and said that “I’ve never run in conditions this bad. I was pelted with ice thewhole way.” And he didn’t have to endure it for the 50 minutes that I did!But the coldest temperature of any of my races was New Year’s Day, 1993. It had rained and then the temperatureplummeted to well below freezing leaving the overpasses coated with a slick early morning coating of ice.As I went through the first mile in 6:10 I could feel a burning like sensation in my lungs caused by the subfreezing temperature. Ahead I could see runners slippin’ and slidin’ as they went across the overpass. Somewere grabbing for the guardrails while others just went down. It was nice to take a heated bus back to the startarea.My coldest run was a training run. I think it was in late January of 1994. Both my running buddy and I hadtaken one of those “use it or lose it” corporate vacation days to get in a long run as part of our training for theupcoming Vancouver Marathon. Since the weather forecast called for freezing temperature and very windyconditions we decided to wait until mid morning to do our 12-15 mile run. The weather didn’t improve muchbut we were determined to get in that run.As we began the wind was at our backs so we didn’t realize how cold it really was with the wind chill. Eventuallywe had to return to our start. That’s when the cold blasts hit us and we quickly realized that we could sufferfrostbite. We resorted to changing our direction, zig zagging back and forth on side streets every now andthen to avoid running directly into the wind. And while that did provide temporary relief it added mileage andto the time that we were exposed to that dangerous weather. We had some painful minutes after arriving homeas our faces and other body parts re-warmed.But the coldest I ever felt was at a pre-race. Runners had been bussed to the far end of the Golden Gate Bridge.There at a small park exposed to the Pacific Ocean we stripped to running shorts and singlets putting the warmouter clothing on the bus. Despite being a June day (1991) the wind was blowing strongly off that cold PacificOcean water leaving me shaking for nearly a half hour before the race began and we could cross the GoldenGate and get warmed up again.I’ve forgotten the year but it was obviously during my running addiction years when an ice/snow storm left thePlano, TX streets hazardous for several days. In desperation to find a place to run I joined a health club just toPage 6