Saucony 2009 - Nate Jenkins

Today I had a hill climb workout. I had scheduled a 6 mile climb on Gold Camp Road on the west side of Colorado Springs. Starting at 6600 feet and finishing at almost exactly 8000 feet. I planned to park at a scenic view turn off 2 miles up the hill, jog down past the start and do a 3 mile warm up. Then do my climb and finish with a 4 mile cool down back down the hill to my parked truck. Now I knew it was supposed to snow today but I was figuring it would be a flurry like the last few snow storms we have had here. Heck I did one of my runs last Saturday with no shirt on.

As I was finishing my stretching it began snowing and I heard on the TV that we had a blizzard warning and were expecting 6 to 12 inches of snow. But I’m a stubborn man. So I headed out the door. In my defense though it was snowing pretty hard it wasn’t sticking to the road yet. Plus I’m only a couple weeks off training in a tough New England winter so I’ll be fine right? So off I went, that was mistake number 1.

As I got up to Gold Camp road the snow was really coming down and up at the higher elevation, in comparison to my apartment, it was sticking pretty good with perhaps an inch or more on the road. I parked where I planned 2 miles up the hill and promptly made mistakes 2 and 3. I put on light spandex gloves, rather then loose gardening or running gloves I have. Then I locked the door to my truck, I didn’t lock the keys in it but it was a mistake all the same.

As I started my warm up the very strong winds, 40 plus miles an hour I would later find out, were whipping the snow into me hard. My hands and cheeks were very cold. I mostly was happy thinking that this wind would be at my back on the way up and that I hadn’t shaved off my winter beard yet. I did have one passing thought as I noted the roads deteriorating condition that doing this workout could be monumentally stupid, but I wanted my workout and doing it in the snow just made me feel tougher. I did make one sacrifice I decided to just do a 2 mile warm up instead of my planned 3 miles.

The workout went great I attacked the hill well and ran 42:59 for 6 miles climbing 1400 feet. As I ran up the hill the snow came down hard and up at 8000 feet there was at least 6 inches on the ground and I had been running in near white out conditions from the start. It was an awesome effort I was thrilled hammering up the side of a mountain in a driving snow, the snow getting deeper and deeper forcing me to keep lifting those knees high and from time to time I would slip and have to really drive forward to hold my balance the result of which was like getting the wind knocked out of me because of the extra oxygen needed. It was awesome and I felt like an animal! I was working very hard and with the wind at my back for the most part I was quite warm. In fact all the snow that had been sticking to my spandex/cloth gloves melted as did the snow that continued to hit them and my shirt. When I finished, though I didn’t notice it right away I was actually quite wet.

Now is when my stubbornness that I take such pride in began to show itself as the stupidity that it really was. As I started my cool down I began to cool off very quickly my hands and forearms were very cold within a mile. Also I was now thinking about the depth of the snow not in terms of trying to run through it as fast as I could but in terms of how it would affect my ability to drive. The thing is this is a very small mountain road that doesn’t have very many guardrails and I drive a rear wheel drive pick-up that sucks in the snow. It does ok with extra weight in the back but I took that out when I left New England and I knew without it all bets were off.

At this point I was pretty tired and my soaking wet hands were really freaking cold. I just kept calm and kept telling myself to just keep going and that it was no big deal. But as I slowly clicked off the 4 miles back to the car I could tell I was losing a lot of function in my hands and forearms and I was really regretting my choice to lock the truck door, which has a lock that tends to stick a bit or more in cold weather. I considered taking my gloves off but figured that my hands were already wet under them and that at best if I took them off I wouldn’t be any worse off, on the other hand the worst case scenario would be much worse so I just continued on and kept trying to move my hands and keep function in them.

In the last mile to the car I was real cold, my shirt had frozen solid and I knew if I had any trouble opening the truck I could be in trouble pretty quick. But luck was on my side and though the wind was really whipping the snow had decided to take a break meaning visibility was good but more importantly I wasn’t getting any wetter.

I got back to the truck and began trying to unlock the door. It probably took less then a minute but it took both hands and a couple dozen tries so it felt much longer. To be honest I had decided that if it took much longer I was going to break the back window of the cab. My hands were painful and weak at this point and I was very cold. I’ve had hypothermia once before and had no desire to go there again. But the key turned and my luck had got me past my biggest problem. I basically leaped into the truck and turned it on as quickly as I could. Then I took off my gloves my, they were frozen to my hands and it was very tough to get them off but though my hands were very cold and weight they hadn’t themselves started to freeze. Lucky again. I tried to take my frozen shirt off so I could put a dry one on, but the combination of it being frozen solid, my frozen solid beard and my hands not functioning at a 100% I couldn’t get the neck loop around my beard. They were both rock solid.

Now for my next problem, driving. I was ok but the truck didn’t want to back onto the snowy road. Now I drive a stick so it was easy to rock it back and forth and I could prevent the wheels from spinning like crazy easier so though it took a couple minutes I was able to get out and now all I had to do was crawl down the icy, snowy mountain road in first gear at slower then 10 miles an hour. I was worried that I would spin out but the roads weren’t that bad so I made it fine. Plus with the heat now pumping in the truck I was able to get my dry shirt and sweatshirt on and all was good. But if it had been a bit icier or my tires a bit balder it could have been a very scary drive.

I got a great workout in and got away with a number of stupid choices but I was really lucky. If one or two things had changed just a little bit I could have ended up very frost bit or worse and all of it was avoidable with just a little better planning or a little compromise. So in the end I have another good story about a crazy workout I did this one time, but this crazy workout could have bit me in the ass and cost me quite a bit and you can bet it will be a good long while before I make some of these mistakes again. That said now I’m off for my afternoon run. It is still snowing but I’ll be much better dressed and running much closer to home in much safer conditions.