My water bottle froze

When I tried to take a swig of my water a few miles into my run this morning I recognized things didn't flow through the nozzle quite the way they should have. When I got home I figured out why. Although the whole thing didn't freeze, enough of the water at the top of the bottle did preventing the free flow cold water. I considered this a remote possibility, but figured with it being close to my body heat the possibility was remote. I guess nature proved me wrong. Water is no match for being outside in single digit temperatures for an hour.

Of course with weather this cold you'd think the rest of my body would freeze too, but thankfully the mittens, head band, gator, jacket and leggings proved enough to keep me from shutting down. The thing I get most freighted about is the moisture developing from sweating and then having that cool to the point of chilling my body. In other words: hypothermia. I know there's some risk there, but without sounding caviler, not any more than getting injured some other way. 

The crispness of the cold also seemed to make the sky that much clear with visions of the stars and a big orange waxing gibbous moon so much more luminous. It is a beautiful experience to be outdoors in an environment like this. 

For me, because I've been running in all kinds of conditions, the cold makes me shrug a minute, but I just resign myself to the temperature and put one foot in front of the other one. I like running more than the cold. I don't have control over the weather, but I have some sense of control over my resolve and determination to accomplish a plan. It might look crazy to the outsider, but with good layers and other safety steps (I always send a tracking notice to my wife), it's not as unreasonable as it might look from the outside. 

This is how endurance is developed.