In yesterday morning’s haiku post I mentioned that my phone has a tendency to die quickly when it gets cold; in fact, a bit of searching on the Google revealed that this is a common problem – more so with iPhones than with other manufacturers, but across the board this is a possibility. In the midst of all this polar vortex with its disastrous cold spells and (Southern) city-crippling snowstorms, people are finding out that their phones do not like to operate in extreme temperatures.

One source said that Samsung phones tend to withstand lower temps because they don’t have metal backs, and this is something that I cannot corroborate, but whatever causes it is a huge problem for cold-weather runners like myself.

You see, I’m a dedicated runner. Once we have a thirst for the run, we’re like dogs who have developed a thirst for blood; if you want to stop us, you’ll probably have to cage or kill us in order to do so. Part of what keeps me dedicated is being able to look back on my metrics, to set goals and establish baselines from which I can base such goals. To this end, I use Runkeeper.

I promise, I’m not selling you anything. It’s like any runner who uses their Garmin watch or their Nike+ sensor, or some other whiz-bang gadget to track their speed, distance, elevation, location, heart rate, et cetera. I like to have it and use it more than anything to keep myself accountable to the mission of lifelong fitness. So how do I use it when I’m running out in the cold, short of duct-taping it to my groin?

No, I didn’t try that. And I won’t.

Yet.

Yesterday I had a pretty good win, I’d say – I flipped one of my wooly socks inside out, then folded it double with the fuzzy parts facing, to create a jacket for the phone. Then I got the door open, set the countdown to fifteen seconds, hit go, slipped the phone into the sock and slipped the sock into my pants pocket upside-down so cold air wouldn’t travel down to the phone.

I ran thirty-seven-plus minutes, and got back with the surf music still going. After getting inside, the phone was cold to the touch, but operated normally and warmed up quickly – signs that it hadn’t gotten <em>too</em> cold, but maybe there’s about a forty-minute guarantee on that particular sock, no?

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.