HOW I FROZE WHILE RUNNING

I dressed for my run when it was 43 degrees outside. It had been 52 before and I thought I would be able to wear shorts in December but the temperature dropped, which should have told me something. Thirty minutes later after deciding a route in which to run 7.5 miles, it was 38 degrees and windy. I was only wearing my light running tights and my lightest long sleeve shirt over a short sleeve one. I had wore some of my favorite running clothes hoping it would help me on my long run and ignored the weather for the most part. I had at least wore gloves and a headband which would come in handy later on.

After 2.78 miles, I made the decision to keep running rather than run inside my house and put on an extra shirt. My run had started out a little chilly but I'd gotten warmer. The dark clouds in the sky were gathering however, and I was worried it would start pouring and I would freeze (I was halfway right). I ran on though, partly because I didn't want to stop, and partly because I didn't think it would rain since it hadn't all day. I didn't want to be warm either so I took my chances. While talking to myself, I jokingly thought that I'd probably get down to the bottom of my hill and it would pour, since I hadn't grabbed another shirt. I was close. I made it down the hill and then less than 400m later it started raining. I thought this was funny but it was a nice rain, steady and not heavy yet so I ran on. Plus running up my hill twice isn't the greatest experience.

It began raining off and on during my run and I started getting a little cold. It wasn't too bad though until it got windier and even the light rain began flinging against my face. I had been worried about hail and sleet but this didn't seem much better. I put my head down when this happened and ran on since I needed to get my long run in and I figured the miles would help if the ice prevented me from running later on in the week.

The rain continued stinging my face and it proceeded to get colder. I didn't take much notice until about 6 miles into my run while it wasn't raining. I moved my arm for some reason, maybe to check my watch or wipe the rain dripping from my hair into my eyes, or something like that. My sleeve felt weird and I touched it. If felt like there was something underneath it making it hard. Then I figured out that it was frozen. My sleeve was frozen. It had become hard and the wrinkles and sags in the shirt weren't able to move because they had frozen. I checked my other sleeve and found the same result. I checked the top parts of my sleeves, and although not as hard, there was still an icy covering spread over them. I found this hilarious, which should have told me I was becoming delerious from the cold and rain and turned back.

It took me at least another half mile before I figured out that it hadn't been simply rain that combined with the cold that froze the arms of my shirt. It had been freezing rain or sleet. Maybe that was why people had been giving me weird looks as they ran to their cars and wiped the ice off. Minutes later it started raining again so I was able to test my theory. Sure enough, I caught little ice pellets in my hand that had been pelting my face for 15 minutes.

After reaching almost 7 miles I decided to keep on running because I felt good and I wanted to see how frozen my shirt could get. This is obviously a stupid idea but the cold was affecting me. The fact that I had just found out, while trying to pull my shirt down, that the bottom of my shirt was frozen,creating a sort of shield around my abdomen also affected my decision.

I decided to run 10 miles, which I have only run once before, in the summer when it was about 85 degrees out. At around 8.5 miles I found the upper part of my shirt, the part across my chest, was also frozen so I now had a sort of shield on my front half. My hair seemed to be covered in ice too or at least had icy pellets spread throughout it. Less than half a mile later, after stepping through multiple puddles that didn't appear to be water, I could feel my shoelaces hitting the top of my shoes. My shoes were soaked but I took this as a sign that my shoelaces had frozen. My shorts didn't freeze though, probably because they were mostly covered by my shirt and constantly rubbing against my running tights.

The last half mile of my run produced no more rain. I was a little disappointed but since I couldn't straighten my arms due to the frozen sleeves, maybe that was a good thing. The sidewalks had become icy and slick but I hadn't noticed because my last 4.5 miles had been ran in the street. After arriving home without falling on the ice, I melted a little while running inside to grab the camera. I checked the temperature quickly and found it was 28 degrees. It had dropped 10 degrees during my run and the clothing I was wearing wasn't acceptable for anything under 35 degrees. The experience was worth it however. I took some photos since I figured this wouldn't happen to me very often while running.

My shoelace is actually frozen in this position.

After I untied my shoelaces they were still frozen.

The loop in my shoelaces is actually hard and wouldn't straighten until it melted.

My shirt is frozen in this position.

It wouldn't stand up on its own because the back isn't frozen. The arms are frozen in that position however.

This is what freezing rain does to your clothing.

Those wrinkles in my shirt don't move.



The bottom of my frozen shirt.


The slightly darker spots are where the ice is.




This is one of my favorites because you can really see how the ice froze it.



This is my driveway which didn't look like this at all before my run. You can actually see the ice pellets.

Sorry for the long post and all the pictures. I just like to show off how dedicated I am.