Thanks to my RA friends for giving me great advice on running a marathon in the cold!!! (Read 541 times)

As I enjoy winter break and my 480 freshman male residents are home blessing their parents with their joyful antics, I thought I would take a moment and say thanks and share my experience with my friends here at RA. I sought your advice for running the Charlotte Marathon back on Dec 9th and got some great feedback. I think the biggest thing you taught me...which worked... is less is more and keep the outer bits warm. So, I will share what I learned as I am sure there are others out there with similar concerns about cold weather running. The race was 20 degrees at the start and barely 40 at the finish... My core outfit was Under Armour running socks and Asics GT 2110's, Under Armour nylon athletic underwear, Asics nylon running shorts, a New Balance long sleeve dry fit shirt, and a Reebock fleece. I also had some cool running gloves from Adidas and a Columbia headband for my ears. At the start I also had two throw away sweatshirts and sweatpants on...at mile 2, one sweatshirt was gone, and at mile 3 I lost the next one. I thought I would need to get rid of the sweats sooner...but was perfectly comfortable with them on til mile 10 and then they were off as I was down to my core outfit. That stayed the same for the most part, although sometimes it felt better with the gloves off and then my hands would get cold and I would put them back on. By mile 21 the fleece was too warm, so I tied it around my waist and finished the race that way...although I remembered to hold it up at the finish line for the all important finish photo. :-) http://brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=13783&PWD=&BIB=256 But, thanks for the great advice...prior to asking my plan was to wear Under Armour tights, Under Armour cold gear top...etc. I would have roasted, dehydrated, and ... I am sure ... had a different race. So, thanks again! Happy Holidays! Cheers, Norm

Thanks Trent and thanks for making my link active!