On Saturday morning Gina and I woke up later than usual after staying up late (i.e. past 11 pm) watching movies with Gina's sister the night before. It was tough enough getting out of bed and the fact that it was raining outside wasn't helping at all. I was planning on running around 12 - 13 miles and I'll be damned if a little bit of rain was going to stop me. We all got dressed and put on rain gear. Well, everyone except for Maia who doesn't seem to mind if her fur gets wet. Five minutes before we were going to leave the rain changed from "get you wet rain" to "soak you to bone with icy cold rain". And because when it rains, it pours, some thunder and lightning got thrown into the mix. But no little winter thunder/ice storm is going to keep me from getting my miles in. However, being one to listen to reason, I did agree to only go for 8 miles.9:30 AM: The roads were beginning to get covered in standing water creating giant puddles along the curb. You always need to pay extra special attention to passing motorist in this weather since they will take their "I'm a bad ass cause I can drive over any curb in the city"-SUV and plow right through a puddle sending a tidal wave over the sidewalk. However, by the time I was outside for 2 minutes, it would not have mattered a bit cause I was already soaked through. I ran past the park where the open drainage canal was nearing flood stage and turned north into the wind. The rain was starting to freeze on parked cars on the side of the road. The jacket I was wearing caused the rain water hitting my chest to pool and flow straight down to my shorts (that's right folks, I was wearing shorts). My gloves were soaked through and my penis was getting colder by the step. I didn't make it much further before I turned around and headed home. About half way home I ran into Gina, Vanessa (Gina's sister) and Maia, they left the house about five minutes after I did. They saw me running home and it didn't take too much convincing to get them to turn around too. We all headed home, dried off and ate an amazing breakfast of waffles, scrambled eggs and buffalo sausage.
Just as quickly as the rain picked up intensity, it lost it too. About 30 minutes after we got home with our tails between our legs the rain mellowed out to a steady drip. I cursed myself for my cowardice and planned on going out later in the day. This time with two pairs of underwear.
1:50 PM: It looked as if the majority of the storms had passed and that all that remained was the rain. I headed out to run the same 11.7 mile route around town that I ran on Monday and the moment I closed the front door the rain picked up again. "It's just a little rain," I thought and left anyway. This time it turned out to be harmless and ten minutes later it calmed down again. The roads were still wet, though not a bad as earlier. My jacket was doing a good job keeping my core warm and even though I was again wearing shorts, which were soaked, with two pairs of underwear on my important regions stayed warm. Some of the roads on this route don't have a sidewalk and are too busy to run on, especially when the shoulder is under water. This caused some tromping through the mud on the side of the roads. A few slippery spots, but don't worry folks, this humble blogger jogger is quick on his toes (just don't look at some previous posts) and managed to keep his tookas out of the mud. The weather was a non-factor until about 10-15 minutes left to go when I heard some thunder again. Then again. And again. It was getting closer and I pushed hard to try and make it home in time before the next storm arrived.
Running moment of the week: Making it to the port-a-potty in time on Monday's run. Enough said.
2/11 - 2/17
total miles: 58.1
time: 7:37
YTD miles: 381.9
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