Unsolicited Advice

People don't like it. Unsolicited advice. I don't offer it much because I'm nice like that. I figure if people want my opinion, they will ask for it. The problem is, sometimes what I have to offer is not opinion but hard earned knowledge, facts that could help them avoid some discomfort in the future.

One thing that for the last few years I have seen that causes me to want to say something is people running in shorts in very cold weather. I used to do it, down into the 30s. I know you can take it. I know your legs don't feel cold, but what you are doing is not a good idea. You will pay a price for it one day.

One guy who took the ultrarunning world by storm, winning race after race never clad in more than shorts even in knee deep snow, is now living proof of what I was thinking at the time. I used to read about him in the magazines and cringe at those pictures of him in his shorts while sloshing through the snow on some mountain pass, on his way to another victory.

I wanted to warn him, but I did not know how. I also am pretty certain he would not have listened to me. Who was I? I found his blog a couple of years ago. He now rarely runs do to some injuries as well as some pretty bad patellar tendonitis. Who woulda thunk it? That is the part that gets you. You have about an eighth of an inch of tissue between the outside air and your patellar tendons. It doesn't take a socket rientist to figure it is not good to run in shorts when the weather is cold.

What is cold? you ask. I asked a bicycle man that one time when I was purchasing my first pair of tights. He told me to cover the knees anytime the temperature hits 65 of below. What?!?!? Sixty five?!?!? I'm in a T-shirt at 65, and I hate cold weather. 

To make a short story long, through years of experience I have learned that he was right. I have learned that about a lot of rules of thumb I once scoffed at. Those oral guidelines exist for a reason. The reason is they are come from hard-won experience. And no one has time to learn everything the hard way. Listen when old timers give you advice.

In 2016, I did the Mississippi River Marathon. It was cold, like freezing. I lot of the young guys were in shorts. I told one of them "Your patellar tendons are going to hate you one day." He did not answer, and I am sure his behavior did not change. But I warned him and when that problem flares up, I hope he remembers what I said to him that day.

Last week, or the one before, I was running back to town on Money Road. It was cold, and I was in tights. I was headed south and passed a young man headed north. He was clad is shorts. I took my toboggan off so he could see the color of my hair before I spoke. "Young man," I yelled out. "If you want to run when you are my age, cover those knees up." He did not acknowledge me in any way. I am pretty sure the next cold day we have will find him out there running in a pair of shorts. But I gave him sound advice.

I can now run at 70 degrees in shorts. When I come inside the house and sit down, my knees begin to ache so bad that I groan. Not at 80 degrees, and not at any distance long or short. It now only has to be just a little bit cool. If I could do it over again, I would cover those knees at 65 every single time.