Out of the Blue
What a surprise this morning's run was!
Saturday mornings are my long runs. Lately, the sun is up so early and it's so warm already (and my runs have gotten so long) that I have to try to get out of the house by 5 or 5:30 at the latest if I don't want to fry by the end of my run. So this morning I set my alarm for 4 am (yikes!) to give me some time to eat and wake up and read scriptures beforehand. At 5 I woke Terence up to see if he wanted to go with me and to my delight he said he would! (He hasn't come out with me in a while.) He didn't think he was up for as long of a run as I was planning-- 11 miles-- but he was going to ride his bike and keep me company.
When I opened the garage though I got the shock of my life. It was raining!!!!
Now, if you are from wetter climes you may be rolling your eyes about now, but I live in the desert. Not only that I live in an area that has not even had our usual tiny amounts of winter rain. My local weather forecast for the day showed 0% chance of rain.
Well, that meant no bike for Terence. He can't see well enough with rain-spattered glasses to bike safely. He suggested I just go to the gym and run on the treadmill instead. I loathe long runs on the treadmill-- eleven miles on the road may be awful, but it's ten times worse on a treadmill. It was a moot point though because on Saturdays our gym doesn't open until later in the morning, which wouldn't give me enough time to get in the full run. So though I was grumbling about running in the rain, I knew I was going to do it anyway. I finally coaxed Terence into agreeing to run at least a mile or two with me and we headed out into a light drizzle.
Not bad at all, I thought. It was a little cold, but not uncomfortably so. However, five minutes into our run, a sudden onslaught of wind and dust and icy rain pelted us. I couldn't move forward. I couldn't see. It felt like I was getting pounded by tiny hailstones (though I didn't actually see any hail-- perhaps it was all the dirt getting picked up by the wind). Terence wanted to call it quits right then. "We can't run in this!" I countered that this was an adventure. Terence was probably rolling his eyes at me, but he turned around and started walking backward to keep all the debris out of his face. I tried that for a few minutes, but I finally decided, what the heck, I'm just going to force my way through this. I knew as soon as I turned the corner the wind would not be head-on any more and it would be easier. So I pushed on.
I didn't give up. Neither did Terence! He held in there for nearly three miles, despite the fact that the wind kept gusting from different directions so it felt like we were almost always running against the wind. Luckily for me, the storm had moved on by the time I reached about the halfway point. In the end it was a good thing! When the sun came back out and it started to heat up, I was soaked through and it kept me quite cool for the rest of my run.
The best part? It smelled fabulous all through my run. I will take what I can get!!
Saturday mornings are my long runs. Lately, the sun is up so early and it's so warm already (and my runs have gotten so long) that I have to try to get out of the house by 5 or 5:30 at the latest if I don't want to fry by the end of my run. So this morning I set my alarm for 4 am (yikes!) to give me some time to eat and wake up and read scriptures beforehand. At 5 I woke Terence up to see if he wanted to go with me and to my delight he said he would! (He hasn't come out with me in a while.) He didn't think he was up for as long of a run as I was planning-- 11 miles-- but he was going to ride his bike and keep me company.
When I opened the garage though I got the shock of my life. It was raining!!!!
Now, if you are from wetter climes you may be rolling your eyes about now, but I live in the desert. Not only that I live in an area that has not even had our usual tiny amounts of winter rain. My local weather forecast for the day showed 0% chance of rain.
Well, that meant no bike for Terence. He can't see well enough with rain-spattered glasses to bike safely. He suggested I just go to the gym and run on the treadmill instead. I loathe long runs on the treadmill-- eleven miles on the road may be awful, but it's ten times worse on a treadmill. It was a moot point though because on Saturdays our gym doesn't open until later in the morning, which wouldn't give me enough time to get in the full run. So though I was grumbling about running in the rain, I knew I was going to do it anyway. I finally coaxed Terence into agreeing to run at least a mile or two with me and we headed out into a light drizzle.
Not bad at all, I thought. It was a little cold, but not uncomfortably so. However, five minutes into our run, a sudden onslaught of wind and dust and icy rain pelted us. I couldn't move forward. I couldn't see. It felt like I was getting pounded by tiny hailstones (though I didn't actually see any hail-- perhaps it was all the dirt getting picked up by the wind). Terence wanted to call it quits right then. "We can't run in this!" I countered that this was an adventure. Terence was probably rolling his eyes at me, but he turned around and started walking backward to keep all the debris out of his face. I tried that for a few minutes, but I finally decided, what the heck, I'm just going to force my way through this. I knew as soon as I turned the corner the wind would not be head-on any more and it would be easier. So I pushed on.
I didn't give up. Neither did Terence! He held in there for nearly three miles, despite the fact that the wind kept gusting from different directions so it felt like we were almost always running against the wind. Luckily for me, the storm had moved on by the time I reached about the halfway point. In the end it was a good thing! When the sun came back out and it started to heat up, I was soaked through and it kept me quite cool for the rest of my run.
The best part? It smelled fabulous all through my run. I will take what I can get!!
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