Where have all the runners gone?

Good morning! Love Vancouver

It’s cold and dark. It’s 8am and I’m still in bed having ignored the three alarms that told me it was running time. Welcome to running in the Canadian winter, where actually, you just don’t.

OK, so I’m in Vancouver (4 degrees) and not Edmonton (-24 degrees), but still, it’s not easy to muster up the motivation to hit the road when you’re this close to the Arctic. On the few occasions when I’ve gone out before or after work, I’m surprised to find that I’m not the only one struggling to run through winter.

The 9km loop around Stanley Park, usually teeming with joggers and strollers, is all but deserted both pre and post work. These days I’m lucky to see 5 other runners while out for a 90 minute trot.

But the hard core runners soldier through. I can tell because Van City Run Club still offers at least a dozen group runs a week to its 2335 members. In hope of finding some motivation/will power, I picked the brains of club organizer, seasoned marathoner and local legend Jerry Kroll.

His first tip to running through winter: run with friends.

“You’ll be tempted to skip a run if the weather is a bit nasty,” he says. “But if you’ve got peer pressure and fun people to run with you’ll follow through and feel great about it.”

Reward donut! Because Jerry said I could.

He also suggests:

–          Have your warm gear laid out ready to go

–          Take immune system boosting supplements

–          Reward yourself “a latte, special cookie or whatever winds your crank”

–          Stick to well lit, safe neighbourhoods when it’s dark out

And my favourite: “If your finances and schedule can afford it, plan for a week or two of a holiday in a nice, sunny place like Arizona during the winter. Almost every elite runner in the world trains in the elevation at Flagstaff Arizona during the winter months, and a week or two of this sort of luxury can totally change your fitness level.”

Yes. A week’s holiday somewhere warm is all about fitness.

Left: bad snow, Right: good snow

Winter running is also about knowing your snow. We don’t really do snow in New Zealand. Not in the cities and certainly not on my running routes. So when a whopping 11cm of the white stuff blanketed Vancouver recently, I squeed! in excitement, put on my trainers and expected a good, frolicsome run.

The reality was like trying to run in a slushy machine, punctuated with patches of slippery black ice and puddles of melted snow. Not ideal.

So for those runs, let me pass on my own expert advice: Hard, crunchy snow good. Slushy, sinky, puddly snow bad.

And no run at all? Much, much worse.