Running in the Rain

I renewed my commitment to run last week. It's easier these days, with my family being the crazy bunch of runners they are now, plus my Nike+ (which I love). Add in my sickening amount of free time and living in a fairly flat area, I have ideal conditions that I know won't last forever. With that in mind, I kind of see this as my chance to break into it, try and make it a habit while I have these advantages.

I've had short periods of time in the last 8 months where I've tried to run consistently, and last Saturday was a new Day 1. Armed with my new Nike+ wristband and an iPod, I bravely headed out the door to start being a runner. I was a block away from my apartment when the blue sky very suddenly disappeared and it started hailing. HAILING. I was being pelted in the face by ICE. It came down hard and fast and completely unexpectedly. But something weird happened. I smiled. My mother's voice came into my head saying "At a certain point, it's not like you're going to get any wetter." And so I embraced it. After a minute, the hail wore off and turned into a slushy heavy rain. And I was still smiling. As a matter of fact, the harder it rained, the happier I felt. I found the whole thing oddly exhilarating.

Different thoughts ran through my head. "How committed I must look!" "Well, I'm definitely not going to get over-heated." "I bet I'm really confusing people. Cool." Something in me loved that everyone else was scurrying to get out of the rain, angry they had chosen this particular window of time to venture out. No one else wanted the rain. But I did. The rain is familiar, like an old friend. And it was there to keep me company, pushing me to finish.

It finally let up when I came within a quarter mile of finishing, and then the novelty wore off. I realized I was freezing, my clothes were cold and heavy, and my feet were very squelchy in my shoes (I wrung out an impressive amount of water from my socks shortly after arriving home). I guess being thoroughly soaking wet is only fun when you're caught out in the rain. Once I was back home I had to start the process of wringing out and hanging up all my layers, drying out my shoes, making sure my iPod and Nike+ stuff were ok after so much water exposure, and getting myself back above hypothermic levels. So that was less fun. But I hope I can recapture that feeling I had running in the rain.

I hope I can keep myself running. I've never been good at it. I don't have much speed, I definitely don't have much stamina, but hopefully this is the time it sticks. I want to be in better shape. And I definitely want to sleep better. Perhaps above all I don't want to come in last on the 4th of July.





**It should be noted that rain is ok only if it starts AFTER you start running...

**Also, I wouldn't choose to run in such conditions every day