As mosty regular readers of this blog know, most of my cold weather activities are centred around running as well as a few cold water showers and baths. I have been running shirtless through the past 2 years now, I can only think of one time when I actually wore a shirt to run in and that day it started out at -14C. I did take off my shirt half-way round the 11km route that I was doing that day and finished the run shirtless. The weather in the UK has warmed up a little since my last post so it was a warm 11C at the start of the run (although it is supposed to be getting colder later this week). Just over three quarters of the way around the route there was a farmer out with his dogs in the field and he echoed and probably the most often spoken comment that I hear: "You're brave!" To be perfectly honest, I don't feel brave at all - it's what I do every time I run. I feel normal. I am sure it's the same for the winter swimmers when they are seen in the ice covered rivers and lakes. I am sure they feel "normal" and not some kind of freak as they do it all the time. The fact that the person that is observing you does not do that activity or would ever consider doing what we do themselves somehow means that they need to comment. A normal "hello!" or "what a great morning!" would be a much better greeting and would invite a normal conversation. Instead I often feel I have to justify why I am running the way I do. Unfortuately, I am rarely able to think of a witty or smart comment as a put-down to the person relating the comment. What kind of comments do you get when people see you doing something unusual and how do you react? Let me knowl