The Boston Freeze

I am so pleased that everyone wants to hear about my running mishaps, so here goes...

I have run maybe 4 times since early December. But, last week I decided, ok, enough with the sloth and back on the track. I went to the gym twice and felt OK. I had a trip to Boston set for Thursday afternoon and Friday. I have been to Boston before, but have never run there. I have always wished I had the time to run along the Charles River, and be a part of it. Of course, I have only been there in picturesque fall, not the dead of winter, but I thought that was not a big deal -- I live and run in New York in the winter, so how much different can it be. I left Thursday afternoon, and actually worked from home Thursday morning and ran. It was sunny and cold (maybe 40 degrees), but fine once I warmed up. I also knew I had a window in my schedule for Friday afternoon to run, but what I really wanted to do in Boston was to run Saturday morning along the Charles river.

So, to prepare for that Saturday run, I packed my cold weather gear, tights, hat, gloves, layers of shirts, etc., and off to Boston. Friday was a beautiful sunny day, but I was inside at my hotel most of the day. My running "window" got increasingly tight, but I really wanted to go. I decided I had better just run in the hotel, because of the timing. I get out all my gear (new shoes included), get dressed -- and I have forgotten to pack socks! Airgh! Hmm, the wheels in my head spin. I have before in dress socks, and while it is OK it is less than ideal, particularly if I want a nice run along the river tomorrow. So, I am in Boston, the second greatest running city in America (after New York of course!), and no worries -- I will run to a running store to get some socks instead of hit the gym! I google it and -- the Bill Rodgers Running Store is the closest store, about a mile away. Awesome! I'll just run over to the store, get socks and come back and then run in the gym a couple miles more.

It is now about 4 pm, and I am going to have to really get going to get my run before my afternoon meeting. I am staying on the Waterfront in South Boston. I went outside -- in the gear I had set out to run in the gym, shorts and a tshirt (and dress socks to boot!) -- and waited for Garmin to pick up the satellite. Of course, that took like 10 minutes. And I was cold. Not a little cold, but like super duper cold. No worries I tell myself -- I have run in cold before (like yesterday), and I always warm up. If I go back upstairs and re-dress, I'll run out of time, Garmin will have to restart from beginning, no socks for tomorrow. And my cold weather gear will be dirty for the big run I had planned tomorrow. This errand is only like 2 miles in an urban center, how bad can it be?

As Garmin eventually picked up the signal, I realized something else: wind. And not a breeze eitehr, but maybe 20 mph off the bay. Brr. And -- Boston is further East and North of New York. So, the sun had also set. And the weather was 20 degrees colder than my run yesterday in New York. But I have to get the socks for my Saturday morning river run! See, it all makes sense!

Off I went to get the socks. I never warmed up. The trot to the running store was actually about 1.7 miles according to Garmin. When I got there, my hand was basically frozen in place and I couldn't completely un clench it. My nose was frozen too. And the running store didn't have the socks I wanted, but they had perfectly fine substitutes. And I had brought cash and not a credit card so I couldn't buy a cool shirt. The guy at the store suggested I use pair of socks #2 as a pair of gloves. Good thinking! So back to the hotel I ran, Garmin showing a measly 3.4 miles, with a terrible pace (lots of ice and people on the sidewalks too. And I forgot to stop the pace in the running store. And Garmin lost satellite coverage in the store and didn't pick up for a while on the return trip.)

I saw my hotel and almost sprinted home. I was freezing. The doorman old me the temperature was 17 degrees. I estimated the wind between 15 and 20 miles per hour -- particularly over the river bridges and open spaces, where it was stiffer. That is a wind chill right around 0. And I still had a work meeting in about 15 minutes. I took a hot shower and tried to thaw out. Note to self: always wear the cold weather gear when running in the cold. Or, pack running socks.

And the truly ironic thing was that I couldn't run Saturday morning either. So the entire sock trip was for naught! Oh well. Lesson learned.