Running in the Rain

Today was a much different run than most of my other ones. We had a cold front moving through this afternoon and with it came a good amount of rain. It started raining about 2 and is still raining as I write this about 7. After yesterdays good run I was looking forward to another good one but the rain made me hesitant. I checked the radar and besides a little more intense rain on the way it didn’t look like there was any lightning to go with it.

As I was debating whether to run or not it seemed there was some divine intervention. The power went out just about right after I clicked off the radar page. Well I’m not one to mess with signs from above so I pulled on the shoes, got stretched out and was out the door.

It seemed I had misjudged how hard it was raining because it was definitely raining harder than I thought it was. It was at just the right temperature though and it felt really good. I had no problem with energy today, possibly because I spent most of my day in the office so that didn’t use up much energy.

It took about a mile and I was drenched. It felt like I had about 2 pounds of water soaked into my clothes. The run was feeling good though and I wasn’t thirsty at all with the continuous supply of water coming down on me, I mean who needs a fuel belt when Mother Nature is doing the trick? So when I hit the point where I have to decide to either turn for my shorter route or keep going for the long one I made the choice to go long.

I’m sure the people in the cars that were passing me thought I was just all kind of crazy. I got a reflection of myself in a parked car’s window and I kind of thought I was crazy too, I was just dripping. When I got to my half way point the 2 pounds of water I had in my clothes felt more like 5 pounds. There is a problem with having mesh on the top of your shoes, when it’s raining it goes straight to the socks. The feet were really feeling heavy by this point.

Even with all that it still felt so good to be out there running and the rain just made it better and more satisfying. The run itself was pretty uneventful for the most part but it was a really good one. When I finished and got under the cover of the roof I just had to laugh when I had to actually ring out my shirt before I dared step into my apartment not wanting to get the carpet wet.

I hadn’t run in the rain in a long time and I forgot how much fun and refreshing it is. I can guarantee that the next time it’s raining I will be out there running if I can. If there are any runners or aspiring runners out there I recommend giving a run in the rain a shot. It can be very fun and is actually kind of liberating in a way.

The Daily Run

Distance: 3.8 miles

Weather: 69 degrees, a nice rain that got me soaked but felt good

Notes of interest: This month has been the most distance I’ve run since I started tracking my runs