OHIO!!! HOLY COLDNESS BATMAN! NUMBER 10!

Brian and I decided to ride our horses on Saturday the 23rd before we left for Ohio, it was about 21 degrees and we dressed well for it and had a great ride, came home showered and headed out to Strongsville, Ohio at about 1pm. This was a 9am race so I didn't care if we got there late. I had booked a pet friendly hotel so we took the dogs and headed out. The drive was uneventful, but we hit a lot of snow squalls that were lake effect in nature and it was very cold and windy. I didn't bring studded shoes so I was hoping that we wouldn't have any snow on the ground to run in. I put 1/8" hex-head sheet metal screws in the bottom of my winter running shoes/trail shoes, so I have some traction. We got to the hotel after already stopping to eat so we were set and fed the dogs and I hunkered down to go to sleep at 10pm. I slept ok, but I never sleep great...TOO EXCITED!!! The weather was cold, but I though I would be ok. I put on all my stuff and then my pink hoodie, then I took that off and put my bib on my top, put on a buff and a stocking cap. The race was paved, so no snow, in a park through a pine forest, beautiful, but cold as crap at 19 degrees. I ran the first mile in my hoodie, then got too hot and wrapped it around my waist, then took off the buff and my stocking cap kept roaming around my head, driving me crazy. It was a double loop so when I ran by the truck I dumped my hoodie and grabbed my baseball hat from Brian and kept on going. At mile 10.5 the wind kicked up and hit me in the face and my temperature, hit rock bottom. My legs said, NO!!! The water valves on my water bottles all froze up, and cold water on your body isn't great!. I had nothing left to kick it up, so I just ran it out. I finished, high fived my crew and proclaimed, "Holy Coldness Batman!!!" I don't remember ever being that cold in my life. I put everything on that I had, and was still cold. I drank 3 cups of hot cocoa, still shivered. I actually placed 3rd in AG at 01:54:05!!! I have a nice plaque to prove it. Tenth race done!

PS: 90 minutes later I stopped shivering!!! With the wind chill the temperature was likely below zero, YIKES!!!