Det fins ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær

After a week's respite, the TA was back to running in, and on, snow this morning. I'm sure it came as an unwelcome surprise to a few (but we understand at least one of our number was racing, yes racing, under slightly more clement conditions). Anyway, it seemed like an opportune time to look at the results of the "what are the craziest conditions you have ever run in?" poll.

Fully 60% of you had ventured out in -20C temperatures or less. We didn't ask you to factor in windchill, but even so, these brave-hearts amongst us are lucky to have all of their extremities intact. Or do they?

Some 15% of you went the other way. You seemingly embraced the worst that a Canadian winter can throw at us and voted +30C and humid instead as being the worst they'd run in. Tolerance to extremes of heat or cold are somewhat personal but it seems to us that it's easier to dress to deal with really cold temperatures than really hot ones. For the former it's just layers and layers and some layers can come off if required, whereas for the later there is only so much that can come off before facing a caution under the Criminal Code of Canada. Det fins ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær indeed.

Interestingly, a quarter of you went for "Bluenose 2005". For those of you new to the province, this was the second running of the Marathon (and associated other events) and whilst the first BN was wet, this edition set records. It was about 4C with 60 kph winds and it rained, torrentially, all day. The TA ended up doing the whole thing in long bottoms, flappy jacket, big gloves and a toque; we intended stripping off the extraneous layers as we warmed up but somehow that time never came! More than one ended the day in the medical tent. Sure, there are some people who always end the day in the medical tent but this was ridiculous. This edition, more than any, earned the BN it's bad-weather reputation! Nonetheless, many TNSers took part with 30% of the top-ten in the full marathon and the 10K being triathletes.

For those of you planning your spring campaigns, Bluenose registration is open by the way. As we contemplate the start of our seasons (the first RNS event of the year is just around the corner and Boston is in eight weeks, arghh) we wonder; how many races did you do last year?