Monday, January 25, 2010

An ominous start

Today was Day 1 of training for the Broad Street Run in May. It was the nastiest weather imaginable today... rain, wind, at times the two together in such force that umbrellas were useless (and often turned inside out). I had pretty much figured on running on the treadmill but then the rain stopped and the sun even tried to peek out. It was warm, too, if humid. A quick check of the weather showed another line of clouds and rain moving in but I only had a 30 minute run on my schedule. For the first 15 minutes of the run it was glorious and I was considering myself so incredibly lucky to be out on the pavement in shorts and a T-shirt at the end of January. Then the skies grew dark. Then the first few drops of rain hit. And then the skies opened up. In less than 30 seconds I was soaked to the bone. The rain was coming down so hard I couldn't see the pavement in front of me. The water was so cold I was breathing in gasps. When I got around the block to my building a few minutes later I thought about cutting the run short but I realized I couldn't get any wetter so why stop now??? After a few more minutes the rain eased up so that I could at least see the huge puddles before I stepped in them. By the time I finished I had to wring out my clothes and it will probably be a week before my shoes are thoroughly dry. Hopefully this isn't a sign for how the rest of the training will go.