Frozen Thumbs and a Frosty Beard

I went on a cold 10 mile run Sunday morning. Perhaps too cold.

First of all, it was 6:30am, and nobody should be running at 6:30am... ever. I was somehow coerced into running at this ungodly hour by someone who I thought was my friend, and his accomplice,  who I met for the first and probably last time that morning (kidding). You know it is too early to be doing something when the only other people awake and moving around in the dark are with you.

I knew it was going to be a painful morning when we got out of our cars and found ourselves standing on a parking lot that had been transformed into an ice-skating rink. The ground was frozen solid. So was everything else.
I kept thinking to myself, "It'll warm up, or at least my body will after we start running". Neither happened.
It was so freezing that the fluids in my body were solidifying. I was wearing Manzella Silkweight Windstopper gloves and they were way too thin for the 20 degree temperature. Next time I'll go with a thicker glove.

My thumbs were the first extremity to freeze, and I kept telling the guys I was running with, "My thumbs are frozen!" They responded with laughter, but I wasn't joking.
After a while I started feeling a little better (because I could no longer feel my thumbs).

Once the sun came up, it's radiance provided a little warmth, but that wasn't enough to make any body parts thaw. I will admit that it provided some beautiful scenery as it lit the mountains in front of us. The only warmth I experienced on this run came from the laughter and joy of reuniting with an old friend. I look forward to more training runs with John as we prepare for the Leadville Silver Rush together. We laughed a lot, but after my beard froze, it hurt my face to smile.

Lessons from this run:
1. Avoid 6:30am runs in January.
2. Avoid 6:30am runs altogether.