Lessons from the Chilly Cheeks Trail Run

Give me a beach. Sunshine. And balmy weather.

I could happily live the rest of my life never feeling temperatures below 50F again.

But yet yesterday I joined about six-hundred other (crazy) people in doing a trail run when temps were around 20F, with a real-feel of 15F.

Why?

Because I love being outdoors and since I live in Pennsylvania where we have about twenty months of brutal winter weather (the calendar might say three months, but I swear it’s much longer) I have no choice but to be outdoors in the cold sometimes.

I’ve been dreaming of moving south for years. We had planned to in 2004 when we finish our trip around the country, but the accident and my injuries changed our plans. And being here with family and friends was the best place to be as I recovered.

But the south continues to call… so over the next year or two as my boys finish college, we plan to pack the uHaul and kiss winter good-bye. But until then, I’m here and I’m going to embrace each day. Life is too precious to do anything less.

Making the most of each day

Life is too short to wait until someday… until perfect conditions… until the planets align… until blah, blah, blah. Instead I do what I can, with what I have, where I am.

I’ve been hearing about this crazy trail run called Chilly Cheeks since it started six years ago. Pretzel City Sports manages the run and they advertise it as a “…rustic trail run touring the mountain overlooking the Pretzel Capital of the world (Reading, PA). It has rocks & roots, dirt & debris, maybe snow & ice and more rises and falls than most 401k plans in the past 3 years. It is 7+ miles that will make you see stars (REAL stars, not people like Jessica Simpson, Rob Kardashian or anyone who has ever appeared on Celebrity Rehab).”  

Yes, I wanted to tackle that! And this was the year, because two crazy running friends also decided they wanted to tackle it for the first time.

Trust the process

Deciding to tackle it did not take away my fear of how I would handle the cold and the hills. While life can throw us curves (can it ever!) I have learned that I can trust the process of many things in life if I prepare properly, if I continue taking steps forward, if I do what I need to do, etc.

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Don’t reinvent the wheel

I’ve run many miles in my lifetime, but not as many as the folks at Runner’s World, so I use their wisdom for many things. In this case, I checked out their What Should I Wear tool. While I don’t always follow it exactly, it gives me a good idea what to wear in various temps.

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Don’t be stupid, remember the basics.

Basic foundational principles are basic foundational principles for a reason… without them, nothing happens. No matter how many runs I do… the basics of drinking enough water, eating well, getting enough sleep and stretching still apply, especially the day before.

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Be flexible

Process, plan, prepare… but then hold it all lightly. Go with the flow of the situation. Based on our previous runs, we had assumed we’d finish this run in less than two hours, but that was before we knew the details of the situation.

Some of the run wasn’t even on trails—seriously, you made your own trail! The hills were bigger and longer and meaner than we had imagined them to be. I always knew PA has a lot of rocks, but I didn’t know a zillion of them were on the hills around Reading.

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Recalculate

Recalculating is not just for your GPS. Within the first mile, we threw away any finishing-time goal (see first video below) and simply focused on finishing without killing or injuring ourselves in the process.

Other than trying a few cigarettes as a teen, I’ve never smoked, but those hills made my lungs feel and sound like I’ve been smoking two packs a day for life. And I had no idea my thighs could burn that bad.

We dreamed of the hot breakfast waiting for us at the finish (Cheers to Pretzel City for having eggs, pancakes, bagels and more!) And relaxing in Bev’s hottub afterwards. We talked about the warm beaches in Florida, where we plan to relax in about six weeks, after we’ve run a Disney half-marathon. We run. We walked. We crawled. We laughed. We cursed.

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Expect to be pleasantly surprised

When you push yourself to the limit and/or put yourself out there, enjoy the surprises that come your way. It really is possible to run in freezing temps and not freeze. Seriously, other than waiting for the run to start and after the finish, I was warm.

While running, I actually forgot how cold it was until I got to the water stop at mile 4.5 and not only was the water semi-frozen in the cups, so was the beer. Yes beer… how else do you expect the race directors to get people out there?

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I’m not in these videos because I’m towards the back of the pack (imagine that) but here’s a glimpse of what Chilly Cheeks is. Christopher Hand is obviously in better shape than I am to be able to run and film. I’m impressed! Great job Christopher and thanks for sharing the videos.

The first video is shot within the first mile of the run.

And another one… near the end of the run.

Yes, it was brutal. But I’m glad I did it.

Not so I can say I did it… I think that’s an odd reason to do things.

I’m glad I did it… because stretching myself to the limit makes me feel fully alive… and that’s the best way to embrace each day.

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Do you try to embrace each day? And/or have you stretched yourself to the limit recently? Why or why not?