I gambled and lost. I thought that I could sneak in a 12-mile run before a predicted thunderstorm, but how dumb is that? You don’t just sneak in twelve miles. Two or three, maybe, but not twelve. However, that is what I tried to do, and I hoped that the radar on my weather app, which was showing nothing, was correct.
It was sunny as I headed out for this run, and I even put on some sunscreen before leaving – 😄. It was a warm and humid day, and I was contemplating which route to take: the shady out-and-back on the main trail, or the trail along the road that I had been running lately, which had a headwind. I found myself pondering what was more beneficial for a long run on a day like this. Would shade keep me cooler? Or would having a breeze blowing on me feel cooler? In the end opted for the breezy route and skipped the main trail because I’m getting tired of having bikes whizz past me. As you can see, getting caught in a thunderstorm was not even a consideration.
Storm or no storm, I was soaked by mile five. Sweat was dripping from my visor, and I had almost drained my water bottle dry. At mile 6.5, I stopped and refilled my water bottle, and could clearly see that the skies were no longer clear and sunny. But it wasn’t looking threatening at all, so I soldiered on.
As I got off the trail that runs along the roadway and hopped back onto the main trail, I heard my first little rumble of thunder. As I got to mile 8.5, I could feel a rain drop or two, and I decided that maybe I should stop taking the walk breaks and start hoofing it back in. At about 9 miles into the run, the thunder and lightning were now becoming very common. I could handle running in the rain, but the lightning was becoming very, very frightening! I knew that the nature preserve up ahead had some shelters to get out of the storm, and I hot-footed it there as quick as I could. As soon as I got there, the skies unloaded.
I sat down on a metal chair under this small shelter and thought that maybe that wasn’t the best place to sit. There was a guy walking up the trail, and I was waving him over to join me, but he had other ideas. Soon after, a runner that I see on the trail frequently also blew by my invitation to join me. I wonder how that turned out for them? It was pouring now, and the wind was blowing the downpour directly at me, so I got up and found the smallest dry spot that I could find to stay out of the rain. Between the temperature drop that accompanied the storm and the winds blowing misty rain at me, I was now starting to feel a little cold.
It doesn’t look like much of a storm, but it was angry while I was in it.
I spent about five minutes there, and when I could sense that the rain was letting up a bit, I decided I would be better off in the larger picnic shelter not far away. I took off, and the rains picked up again, naturally. Upon reaching the picnic shelter, I was met by a cyclist who chuckled at me coming in laughing. He wasn’t wet at all, and frankly, I was wet from sweat prior to this storm happening. But now I was wet head to toe, and I was glad to have a companion to wait the storm out. We chatted about bikes a little bit, and then he pulled out his phone and declared that the radar was showing that the storm was almost over. It had let up a little, and as he pushed his bike back to the trail, I figured that I could make it the two miles home fairly quickly.
I wasn’t a half-mile into the run when the thunder and lightning returned, and the rain started coming down hard again. I climbed the hill and decided to head under the canopy of the many trees. Being under trees in a downpour is useless, as I was getting soaked. As I watched the rain cascade down the paved path on the hill, I saw a frog joyfully hopping across to the other side of the trail. This storm is starting to become weird. After about five minutes standing there, I started getting attacked by mosquitoes, so off I went down the trail again, only to be greeted with more lightning and thunder directly over me. Back to the canopy of trees! I waited there for about 10 minutes and could sense the rain coming to a stop. I continued on toward home, hoping that my need for shelter was unnecessary. Upon getting home, the skies opened up again, and once inside, I was thankful to shed my clothes and jump in the shower to get cleaned up. I really didn’t want to get more wet, but a shower was needed after that trek.
I’m sure I have been caught in the rain before, but other than the downpour I endured during the 2018 Boston Marathon, and one time at Leon’s World’s Fastest Triathlon, when the swim was the driest portion of the race, I don’t remember a situation quite like this one on a training run. It was one for the memory books, for sure.
an amazing run 