Maybe even worse. I went home for Christmas in 1983. I was trying to qualify for Olympic Marathon trials, and had missed the cut off by 2 seconds. I was to race a marathon in January for the last chance to qualify. Home was Des Moines Iowa, from San Diego. It was 50 below when we landed, and getting colder. I stayed for 2 days, ran on a 110 m indoor track and nearly killed myself. At dinner that night, I told my parents I had to go back to SD to train. It got real quiet. I left the next day, on Christmas Eve, which is also my father's birthday. It was 80 below, with wind chill, the morning I was to leave. On the plane, they made us get off (a piece of the plane froze and fell off). My flight was delayed, and I didn't make it home until nearly midnight. A week before the January race, I received notice that my November time had been wrong, and that I had, in fact, qualified for the trials by 2 seconds. I ran the January race anyway, and qualified by a larger margin.