The white ravens have been released from the Citadel. Winter is here. I looked at the extended forecast and cried. The high on Christmas Day is -5 F. I took next week off from work and was looking forward to some long runs, but now I just feel despair.

Tuesday I was determined to run outside. Monday it was snowing hard enough that I decided against an outdoor run, but I want to get in as many outdoor runs as I can when it’s not frigid, so I resolved to make it up on Tuesday. It was in the mid-20s F so I figured it would be okay. I also thought it would be ok to leave my headlamp at home (I did wear my reflective vest). I headed down to Minnesota Point, because I knew it would be a relatively safe place to run. It’s not hilly (I’m always afraid I’m going to slip down a hill while running in winter, or slip off an uneven sidewalk into traffic) and I thought that it would be light enough from streetlights, house lights, and ambient lighting.

It wasn’t light enough, and I was constantly afraid that I was going to slip on black ice – so much so that I actually walked on clear spots in the sidewalk because I thought they were black ice, rather than pavement (since it was too dark to tell). Every time a car went by, its headlights cast everything out of their narrow beams into shadow, so I couldn’t see what I was traversing. Long stretches of sidewalk weren’t shoveled, so I ended up running in the street (which also had icy/snowy stretches).

The wind was brutal. It seemed to swirl around me and come at me from all sides, especially on the way back. I ran 7 miles and it went pretty slowly due to the sidewalk/road conditions and visibility issues, so I was out there for over an hour and a half (yeah, it really sucks to be a slow runner in winter), and for half that time, I was getting bombarded by icy winds. Even with Warm Skin slathered on my face, my cheeks were still frozen.

I couldn’t get warm when I got home. I was so cold I ended up having to take a shower after dinner, and then sat with a heating pad in my lap. Somehow I wasn’t able to generate enough heat to truly warm up on my own, even with cozy clothes, a bathrobe, and a blanket on. Someone suggested last year that I drink hot tea after a run, but I don’t have any tea, because I forgot about that suggestion. I did end up utilizing this suggestion yesterday at work when I was so cold at my desk (I sit by the window) that I was having trouble typing.

It’s only December and I’m already anxious about the cold weather to come. I mean, it’s been cold already, with little reprieve, since late October, but not cold. Not bone-chilling subzero Hoth-level cold. I’m worried about how long this cold snap is going to last. Weeks? Months? When will I see a temperature above freezing again? It feels like it was barely summer.

I’ll figure out how to cope, eventually, but right now all I want to do is whine and worry and wonder if it’s a mistake to try to run a spring ultra.