What's the Craziest Weather You've Raced In?

When WXC was in Boston, Franklin Park was blanketed in snow. Lynn Jennings FTW.

I got frostbite at the 1982 Frostbite 15K in Westminster, Maryland. That ear still gets colder earlier than the other one.

Steve Spence won wearing many, many layers.

2000 NCAA cross in Ames Iowa. -20 w/windchill. Woke up the morning of and the pond just outside my window of the hotel we were staying at had frozen solid overnight. Thought they were going to cancel it...

Riverside track @73-74th Street and Hudson River wind normally blew hard because of the river/palisades combo but one day it was wailing we ran a TT in the 100

10.7 guys goes 9.8 with the wind 13.0 into the wind or something like that.

10k in upstate NY on ST Patty's day. Lake Effect snow projecting big inches was already starting. I was running in tire track behind the lead vehicle. It felt like he was getting close to the edge of the road, so I decided to get over to the other tire track. Crossing over I ended up slipping and falling down, graceful I'm not. Got up and kept running. It was an out-and-back course and on the way back people were asking if I was ok. While saying yes and thanking them I was wondering how they knew I'd fallen, till I got back to the site of the fall. It was quite an obvious mess. On the way home I lucked out and ended up following two snowplows back to where I lived. Not certain I'd have made it otherwise. I think it ended up being a mid-teen inches of snow storm.

2011 conference race on either Halloween or the day before; the freak snowstorm that hit the northeast. I'm sure Robert remembers it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcDN3viWy_I

Not frigid temperatures like the first two posters have raced in, but it was tough running in the snow because it would pelt your eyes.

Rochester, New York, college track meet in the mid-70's. Maybe four teams. The wind was so strong the hurdles literally blew off the track during the race. It was an old cinder track. They changed the three mile to a two mile at the last minute out of pity. I finished with cinders in my nose, mouth, hair, ears, and a very slow time.

NESCAC cross country championships in 2006. I forget the exact conditions, but something like half an inch of rain per hour with 50 mph winds at the Conn College course, which is on the ocean. Because of storm surge and the rain, one (relatively brief) section of the course was under a foot or more of water. The rain and salty water from ocean spray pelted your face whenever you were running towards the ocean.

Then, to add insult to injury, most of the people who ran it got a nasty rash. Seems to have been from urushiol (poison ivy and such) based on my recent reactions to it. Swelling from it caused my knee's circumference to increase by 2.5 inches if I remember correctly.

Some relevant articles:

http://www.tuftsdaily.com/2.5515/inside-the-nescac-the-itchy-and-scratchy-show-runners-leave-nescac-with-rash-1.593249#.UUub3ByG0us

http://www.browndailyherald.com/2006/11/14/mysterious-nescac-rash-ravages-runners/

Two stand out in my mind:

1) Remnants of a hurricane blowing overhead at the start of the race. Thunder and lightning...oblivious race director. Race started as scheduled in a thunderstorm downpour. Was about 78/75, and quickly got steamy between showers. Made the hilly 15K course extra tough.

2) Winter race in Albany, NY. Don't remember the exact temperature and wind, but the WC was in the -15 range. I'd brought a ton of clothes to warm up for the race, with plans to strip down a little for the actual race. Ran the race with all of the clothes I'd brought. Definitely a weird 5K to try running fast while totally bundled up.

2007 Shamrock Shuffle was a snowy nightmare, wasn't too cold though - like 25F, but made for great pictures.

2010 Louisville Ironman topped out at 105F and I lost 14lbs in 16+ hours.

1989 6" of snow at the Manchester, CT Road race Thanksgiving day.. Plows became the lead vehicles..

Ran a local 5k in January of 2008. When I parked the car it was -10F. They said when the race started it was officially -4F, but my -10F number seemed better. I don't think it was very windy that day, just plain cold.

In October of 2007 I ran unattached in a small college xc race. For some reason, the temperature spiked to 90F and the race started at noon. After the whole week of running in the morning when the temperature was around 45-50F, that was a bit of a shock.

USATF Youth X-C Championships, Reno 2009. 8 - 12 inches of snow on the ground, snow coming down, 25 degrees F.

It was my daughter running, not me, but it was really bad. Nothing anyone could do about it, but it was too cold and too hard to run in to be any fun.

Probably the worst day at an X-C race I'd seen in 40 years involvement in the sport. (Probably it was worse for me than the kids, but still...)

XC race in 2008, 20 degrees with 45 mph wind gusts. It was sunny but there was snow on the ground so it was getting blown around like there was a blizzard.

minus 17 in Virginia back in 1996 at Newport News Park

0 F to start and 5 F at finish of a 5 miler. But it was clear and no wind at the 9 am start. My eye lashes were almost frosted shut and I lost my voice for a week from cold injury to my vocal cords

Tropical storm Fay when it came by Florida in 2008. HEAVY rain, a fair amount of flooding (it would end up flooding the whole street the next day), and about 45+ mile winds... Thought it would be cool but I regretted every second of it

2004 Last Chance marathon in Dublin Ohio was 0° when I got to the race and 5° most of the race. Race was 26 laps around a business park with 1/3rd on the sidewalk and the other 2/3rds on the road.

I live in northern Canada and did a half marathon in a terrible blizzard (but they still got volunteers at a water station, crazy canucks!) but nothing, N O T H I N G compares to the 2007 Chicago Marathon. I would take a blizzard over that any day.