MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS Correspondent Dmitry Osipov/. Thick steam is bursting out from the mouth, cheeks are burning with cold, and you can see through frost on your eyelashes - that's how frosty it is outside. Fifty degrees below zero is no joke! How can anyone dare start running in the weather like this? The biggest trick is not to stop, they say. We have discussed with local clubs of runners how fans of jogging in Yakutia get trained to run and how they compete at extremely low temperatures.
Morning jogging
It is minus 51 degrees. An early morning in January. Saturday. The Arctic frost wraps Yakutsk into a thick fog. Even the street lamps seem frostbit - the light quivers just around the lamp, unable to send rays further into the park. I enter the park's administration, where the 5 Miles Movement's joggers meet every Saturday. Marina Koval greets me. She will manage the running today. Though it is very early, and the start is only in half an hour, she has finished her jogging already. "I get up at five, get dressed and jog. It's a habit to jog before the work," she explained briefly.
Marina, together with volunteer Irina Ogotoeva sets a small table with tea. It's a ritual after a frosty running. One by one, the joggers are joining us. They chat, discuss outfits, and talk about themselves. Volunteer Vladimir Timofeev, besides jogging, is also a fan of winter cycling. In any weather, even when it's below minus 50, he rides a bicycle around the city.
A brief warm-up before the workout. The distance is two laps, five kilometers. I am "appointed" a photographer. The only running organizers are the marker and the runner bringing up the rear.
"Safety is above all, that is why we have a closing runner. We begin the workout at nine. Every year, an additional session is on January 1. Fewer people come to join us in big frosts, and we, every year, fear nobody'll come. On December 31, which was Saturday, 28 people showed up. And today - only nine," Marina said.
Jogging at a record low temperature - minus 51 degrees. "This is the lowest temperature over our entire history," the club's event director Alexey Gerasimov said.
Begin from autumn
Specialists say - if you want to jog in winter, begin from autumn. Choose the equipment, gradually get used to frosts, and mind a proper nutrition. Winter in Yakutia begins in October. The temperature falls bit by bit, and the joggers take this time to bring bodies to the right condition.
Learning to feel the body is most important, said Artur Koryakin of 76. He has been running for more than 30 years, including 22 - outdoors, and in winters, too. He leads the Dyujuur Runner Club.
"I run five times a week now. Winter running requires long adaptation, and a high motivation. Running in the frost is more effective than indoors - the air, the nature. In the frost, runners must be cautions, control the breath - to avoid any health problems," he added.
Teacher Noyabrina Kirenskaya has been running since 2021. With time, she, step by step, joined winter runners. "Now, I jog at minus 50. I can hear quite often people say they do not run in winter because they are afraid to catch a cold. My opinion - winter running builds up the immunity system, makes the body healthier. Just follow simple rules: run at a leisurely pace, because intensive workout is not the best choice in frosts. Warm up before running - indoors, inside a warm house. Gradually, the body gets used to jogs in the cold," she said.
A former leader of the 5 Miles Club, Konstantin Kononchuk, recently has moved from Yakutsk to Moscow. He misses those jogging sessions in winter. "It's not easy to pick correct clothes. If too warm - you get overheated. If you wear something light - could be cold. In fact, from the physical point of view, running in such weather is not really too useful. But as for the spirit and the will - no other workout can be compared," he said. In frosts, it's easier to run than to walk, he continued. "It's clearly much warmer when you're running. As for me, it has always been much easier to run at minus 40, than, say, to change a tire in such a frost."
Alexander Tuskun, the Northern Wolves Club's leader, said his big achievement was the Pole of Cold extreme marathon in Oymyakon. "Running in the frost below 40 degrees is considered dangerous for health and life. The first rule - begin running outdoors in the autumn, to have your body adapted to cold air little by little. The second rule - while getting ready pick your pace to avoid short breath. The third rule is - pick the correct clothes," he said in conclusion.
What to wear
Equipment requirements: winter spikes, special thermal underwear for extremely low temperatures, a ski jacket and a down jacket, a mask or a balaclava protecting from cheek frost bites. The main thing for winter running is to wear clothes of a few layers, Noyabrina said. "We put on thermal underwear, the second layer is fleece, then windbreakers, windproof sweaters. Sneakers should also be wet and windproof to keep feet warm."
Two-time winner of the Pole of Cold extreme marathon Vasily Lukin warns: at low temperatures the running pace must be low. "Here is something important: when you sweat a lot, sweat evaporates faster, and clothes get wet. In an hour and a half in the cold, the body inside the clothes is cooling down. Those, who sweat more, should wear fewer layers of clothing not to get overheated - three layers could be enough. Everything depends on temperatures and on specifics of each person. A skinny athlete will freeze immediately, thus he or she needs to put on warmer clothes," he added.
First of all, people running in cold weather, feel that knees and elbows are the first to get frozen. "We make special woolen knee pads to protect the vulnerable areas. In minus 50, all sneakers freeze up. My sneakers were completely frozen after the 10th kilometer, and it felt as if I, barefoot, was running on asphalt. Back then, I was trying to run on a soft surface dusted with snow. Therefore, I was moving in zigzags. Some competing runners preferred to wear valenki (Russian traditional winter felt boots), but I have never done so," Vasily said.
Running in Oymyakon
Yakut runners are anxiously looking forward to the race in Oymyakon, a village that is believed a harshest (of permanently populated) location on the planet. The event will take place on February 11. Presently the air temperature is minus 60 degrees there. Forecasts say, the frost will get only stronger by the due date. This marathon has distances of 5, 10 and 42 kilometers.
The winner in last two marathons at a distance of 42 kilometers, Vasily Lukin, has been training for more than 20 years. He is a teacher at the Churapchinsk State Institute of Physical Education and Sports. Vasily teaches students and continues own training in extreme conditions. He has been running marathons since 2010. In 2022, he ran an ultramarathon: having tried a distance of 100 kilometers at the Russian Championships in Nizhny Novgorod, he took the fifth place.
In September, Vasily begins training for the race in Oymyakon. Not all of his weekly training sessions are outside - only four or five out of seven. "Running in the cold exhausts the body, and therefore on other days I train indoors. I have to monitor the nutrition - the menu must be rich in meat. Last year, it was cold when the race kicked off - minus 56 degrees. I completed the 42-kilometer distance in 3 hours and 22 minutes," he said.
For Vasily extreme running is not only a sport, it is also a scientific research subject. "Cold air contains more oxygen. Last year, we used medical equipment to survey body composition of the marathon participants before and after the race, including the extracellular fluid level, the fat layer. Surprisingly, some runners had higher levels after the race. On the other hand, the equipment weight is an additional stress for the cardiovascular system. Spikes make additional strain on the thigh and calf muscles," he told TASS.
Foreign athletes also take part in the extreme race. In 2022, it featured runners from the UAE and Belarus. However, the Arab participant's eye lenses got frostbit. "We have a notion "Northern blindness." This happens when a person remains in the frost for a long time. Something similar happened to Ahmed, who got very scared, but, fortunately, everything went well and his eyesight recovered," the runner said.
The Pole of Cold first extreme marathon took place in 2019. This year, more than a hundred fans of running plan to participate in it. They will run about 38 kilometers between villages Oymyakon and Tomtor, and then another four kilometers through the village. It is not clear what the weather will be like. But no doubt, the cold is guaranteed - in was in Oymyakon that specialists have registered the coldest temperature in a permanently populated location - below minus 72 degrees.