Hypothermic Half Marathon Winnipeg (or the coldest Half Marathon I'll ever run)

To prove to myself how hardy I was and how much of a Canadian I'd become after moving from the "relatively" mild temparatures of the UK to Canada one and a half years ago, I decided to do some winter running. AND REGISTER FOR THE COLDEST HALF MARATHON IN CANADA.

During the winter months I'm one of those guys that tends to hibernate. I do as little as possible, when I say a little, I mean stretching over to pick up the remote from the side table and change the channel on the TV. Seriously though, i do as little as possible.

So when I moved to Canada, specifically Winnipeg and tried running outside a couple of times in -20C, I quickly gave up.
This year was different however, I had made huge strides in my training and I wasn't ready to sacrifice all the hardwork for winter idleness, so I joined a running group and signed up for a race. Little did I know what was in store for me.

Running in Winnipeg in winter means running in temps averaging -20C for 3-4 months. I only discovered this after joining the running group in November. So I'd been running consistently up till that point running up to 45 miles/week, suddenly the winter began and I rapidly cut down on my runs. I basically stopped all my solo runs and only ran with the group (Wednesdays and Sundays), this made me lose most of the gains I'd made in the preceding months (but at least I was not sitting on my ass).

The taste of the pudding as they say... It was time for the race, I had not done any proper training for this race, I was hoping to wing it and praying that my fitness I had barely maintained would  see me through.

D-day came and the weather as expected was atrocious. -33C and -45 if you took windchill into account. The route had to be changed hours prior to the race on account of the lives of our under-appreciated volunteers(who could stay out in those conditions without moving).

At the end of the day I completed it, it wasn't pretty though, one of my worst runs since I began running in Canada. I've run better slow sunday runs on my off day.

If you think I'm exaggerating about the conditions and would like to verify the story check out the news report: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Fort-Whyte-runners-brave-the-deep-freeze-for-the-Hypothermic-Half-Marathon-293453111.html

also find the run below and check out the temps recorded.