Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Frozen Training Winners

The Zoot CompressRx thermal contest had me laughing all day. I love the fact that everyone was not afraid to laugh at themselves and train through the tough winter elements.

I wish I could give everyone prizes. However, if you didn't win in this round please check back tomorrow for a new Zoot giveaway contest.

The entry that made me laugh the most:
It was 1991 and my first winter running. I had just bought these new fangled spandex tights to run in. Being the inexperienced runner, I believed these would keep me warm in any temperature. I also believed I did not need underwear underneath them.

So I decided to break them out for the first time on a 10 mile run when the temps were in the low 20s(F) and 20+mph winds. I was excited thinking I would be warm and looking great. Before I go any further, let me be clear here. I am a male and this was VERY thin spandex.

I head out the door and it's very cold with the wind chill. But nothing to worry about, I have magical spandex pants to keep everything warm!! Two miles into my run I realize I made a mistake and 'things' started getting unbearably cold. But I soldier on figuring once I start to warm up everything will be ok. I get to four miles and realize things are better and worse. Better in that I could barely feel anything from my waist down and worse because I couldn't feel ANYTHING from my waist down.

At the time, I was 23 and not married.  I seriously thought I was in danger of never having children if I kept this up much longer. I was four miles from home, freezing and numb. Cell phones did not exist and I had no change on me to call for a ride. So I did the only thing I could think of, I turned around and ran the 4 miles home with both hands in my pants trying to keep from going sterile. Did I mention I was also on the busiest street in town? A town of 30,000 people where my mom was on the school board and my dad was city controller?

For a while I managed to only 'warm' myself while no cars were going by worried what people would think. But that didn't last long. Within a mile I was running full time with both hands attempting to keep from becoming an icicle.

I finally reached home thinking I had escaped any major embarassment and maintained my fertile status.  But shortly after getting out of a nice, long, hot shower, my girlfriend at the time called to inform me she saw me and my 'new' girlfriend running down the street.  So much for no embarassment.

Over the years I have learned to better dress for the cold weather but would still love a new CompressRx Thermal shirt. -Chris Janus

Some of the best pictures I received:

Minnesota winter activity at New Years. I'm pretty sure if you are from Minnesota you are either crazy or hard core. . .

An "I wasn't prepared for the conditions" race . . .

Beth rocking a race - it was 4 degrees and she described it as "Not that bad". Awesome!