One lucky girl

The rain was POURING like crazy Tuesday after work and the weather forecast was more of the same the next night (our track night) so I wrote the coach and asked if the rain is POURING like crazy, do we just migrate to treadmills? He responded.

"No. We RUN!!!"

So, not wanting to be that wimpy girl that relocated here from the very arid desert (that I am!!), I told him bravely - "Okay. I will be there."

So Tuesday night I packed up my running bag. I also packed an extra bag with warm clothing in case I needed to change out of sopping wet clothing right after. In my running bag, I placed my pants, two shirts, a lightweight hoodie, a thick hoodie and a non-breathable rain repellent windbreaker with a hood I had never ran in before. I also have an electric blanket in my car that hooks up to cigarette lighters.

So, stressed and nervous, I drove to the track after work last night. There was a line of cars. No one was getting out. We all just sat there watching the clock tick closer to 6:00pm. The windchill was 34 degrees with 14 mph gusts. There was drizzle. Then it started beating harder and harder on the top of my car. This was it. I was finally going to get out and run in a downpour.

Then it suddenly let up! And I mean suddenly!

At 5 till, we started getting out of ours cars and then we ran. We ran and ran and ran on a wet track. But it wasn't raining. There was a light drizzle for about a lap worth's of time. That was IT! I was so happy. So were the others.

So far, I haven't gone running in heavy rain yet. Every race I ran was dry (November, December and two in January) and the only time I got wet was two weeks ago when a small downpour caught us half way up a hill and then quickly left again. That little downpour gave me chills I couldn't shake for hours. Thus, the hyper-diligent packing of extra clothing last night. ;)

I was so dry after our workouts that I didn't even need the dry hand towel I had brought to the track in a watertight baggie.

My times are improving. Not sure how. I really felt lethargic and ready to go home much of the night last night. I didn't want to play. But I guess I was faster than I felt. I felt like I was running my snails 13 minute pace or slower. Interesting how that happens. :)

NOTE ON DISTANCES BELOW: I run so much slower than 90% of the other runners that I run in the 4th and 5th lanes. Those are longer than a quarter mile when run.