Well I’m on vacation, visiting my parents at their beautiful home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Most of west coasters call it Winterpeg and its living up to its reputation.
Having my sister and her family here I knew that I had a running partner to help stop the holiday 10pounder from happening.
So after a sleepin, I got up and asked her to embrace the temps and go for a run. The thermometer inside the house said the outside temp was -15celsius without windchill, maybe running wasnt going to be such a good idea. But you never know unless you try.
So bundled we got in as much windproof gear as we had. Here is what I wore starting at my feet.
Sugoi Merino wool socks with rocky mountain Goretex socks over top, next was the lower body with a pair of sugoi windbriefs then a pair of compression shorts I finished this part off with a pair of Sugoi midzero tights. On top I had a Sugoi merino wool top with my Mountian Hardwear Transition Top over this. For my hands I had a pair of windstopper gloves plus a pair of sugoi windmitts over top and on my bald lid a wore the Mountain Hardwear transition dome. So to say I was wearing layers would be an understatment but it all moved well and felt non-cumbersome. On my feet I chose to wear my trail shoes without any extra traction on the bottom(no snowshoes or yaktraxs) and they worked really well for the snow conditions encountered.
Total value of gear for this run way too much but I owned it all already and its lasted me for years so far but to give you a value probably somewhere around $600 without shoes. WOW. Glad I get a deal.
So off we went into the trails which are all packed from the numbers of folks that venture into this beautiful park just a minutes run from my folks place. After the intial shock of cold to the system and gaining the wind protection of the forest we were off on a gorgeous 45min run on packed snow trails that you could a have managed to do at least an 1hr30min run without even doubling back on yourself.
Well after having braved this maybe an arctic running stage race is not as crazy as I might have first thought. Like all the outdoor sports that exsist if you dress with the appropriate gear for the weather you will enjoy your day much, much more.
Happy Holidays from Winterpeg. See you all in the New Year
Peter
