Freezing Monday

So the goal was six miles. I made it three, but I had a decent excuse for quitting. The run didn't start off well. It snowed all morning and the trails were covered with a couple of inches of fresh. Instead of running on my regular trail I decided to head to the end of the open road and run up the closed for winter section. For some strange reason I though the pavement deeper into the canyon wouldn't have as much snow. Yea, I'm not sure how I did that math. There was plenty of snow on the closed road and the temp was at 19F. But that's not what gave me a bad start. The bad came from the fact that the parking lot had so much traffic it melted the snow and I stepped out of my car directly into wet slush soaking my feet through. Not only that I couldn't sprint straight to the trail because Murphy was having issues jumping into that slush. For some reason he's scared of the mud. I had to carry/pull/drag him out of the car. As soon as he was free and I got onto the frozen snow I realized Hijack was sitting motionless in the mud, scared and unable to move. So back through the slush I go to get dog number two. I have no clue what their issue is with mud, but I think when it's cold it makes their paws hurt.
Yes, paws hurt. By the time we got onto the snow covered road, my Vibrams and the socks in them were soaked. I was ready to quit right then and there as my feet started getting cold with the quickness, but I had to suck it up once I saw how overjoyed the dogs were. I started slowly making it up the road. The road is fairly steep and running in soft snow gives an extra challenge, in addition to the fact that my toes got colder with each step I took. I checked the time, I had to do at least 10 minutes out, for the dogs' sake. But after only 3 minutes my toes felt almost completely solid, and the pain was rather excruciating. I stopped and squeezed and wiggled my feet, my hand started to go numb. Alright 5 minutes and I turn around. I started back up running while flexing my toes in and out, up and down with every step, with my hands stuck deep in my armpits. To my surprise I felt circulation returning to my feet as well as my hands. The feet started to actually feel warm and I could pull my hands out of my pits. Now the only challenge was running up hill in snow :) compared to frozen toes, piece of cake!
That's when it hit me! My problem with hills wasn't physical, at least not at this point. I was so focused on my freezing digits I barely noticed I kept running up hill, and once they warmed up I just kept running. There was no unbearable burn that made me want to quit running forever, and my lungs, I'm pretty sure, burned more from the cold than the hill. There was hope! And if only you could've seen the dogs, sprinting back and forth, chasing cross country skiers zooming by. Even if my toes did freeze, it would've been worth it to see both pooches so thrilled. We kept trudging along, passing skiers trying to make it up. My goal now was to make it to elbow fork, about 2 miles out, up a steep incline at the end. Unfortunately that goal was thwarted as we approached a couple with a not neutered young Rottweiler. At first the dogs played and chased each other, but as I approached closer, I realized the tension between the rot and Hijack was on the rise. The road was also getting steeper, and it would've taken me quite some time to pass them. I was about 1.5 miles out and unwilling to deal with a dog fight, so we turned around. But just for the record, I could've totally kept running up this hill which has defeated me many times in the past even without snow.
Now they way down was a blast! We were flying down the road, through the snow. Both dogs were at fully speed and sprinting with all they had as more skiers kept racing past us. Hijack desperately kept trying to catch up with them. Once he realized he couldn't his new game was to take more challenging routes through the woods and by the river banks hopping over logs and rocks. My enjoyment of this race lasted only, however, for a half mile. At such low temperatures the wind you create running down the hill starts cooling you down significantly. First it was my ears, then my thighs eventually the draft started cooling down my core. All I could do was focus all I had on the running, making it to the car which I was hoping retained some heat from the drive up.
I didn't warm up after that run until half way through yoga class that night, and I even wore long pants and asked to have the room heat cranked up as much as possible. Even sitting here now the skin on my thighs and my feet still feels a little funny. Next time I'm wearing plastic bags on my feet until I get onto the trail!