I did something I had always been afraid of recently. I ran in the rain. I have run in the rain before. In fact, my first 5K was in a torrential downpour in a field. I also got caught in a rain storm last summer during a 4 mile run and at mile 2 the skies opened up. However I have never run long distance in the rain. I always planned my running schedule around the weather forecast.
I had been planning all week on doing my 9 mile run on Friday and the weather was looking good. The hot streak that we were in would break on Wednesday and it would be drier and cooler in the morning. When I woke up that wasn’t the case. It was dark and rainy. I held off going early in hopes that the rain would let up. This would give me time to eat my breakfast and watch the radar. I checked the radar and there were no holes in the green blob that was covering the state. So I sucked it up and went for it.
At first I wasn’t sure how I would like running the whole 9 miles in the rain, but it was still pretty humid out and the rain was a relief. I was sure to keep my ear buds in the whole time because once you take them out and water gets in your ears, it’s hard to listen to your ipod. I also had to keep my phone and ipod in my spibelt because they were getting wet whenever I took them out of my spibelt to look at them and change my podcast. The spibelt is not a waterproof sack, so for the future I will be sure to put my phone and ipod in a ziplock bag.
Most of the run was in the rain, but like I said it wasn’t bad. I only started sloshy and have heavy wet feet towards the middle of the run. But it was bearable and I didn’t get any blisters because of it. That was my biggest fear prior to my first half marathon. I was terrified that I would have to run 13.1 miles in the rain and that my feet would just become one messy blister. Not true.
So when I see rain in the forecast in the future now I will not adjust my schedule accordingly. I will look forward to it. It has a soothing and empowering effect that you don’t have to stop doing what you love just because of the weather. Lord knows, I didn’t let the winter slow me down.