April Showers—7 miles in the rain

As the old saying goes April showers bring May flowers and that is certainly true thus far this April. (at least the showers part of the saying) Prior to my commitment to marathon training, I would never ever have planned to run in the rain. Well, the truth is that I would never have planned to run in the sunshine either, but if I had ever thought to plan a run, I would have used the rainy weather as a fantastic justification for not hitting the pavement. However, times have changed and the rain did not prevent me from completing my longest run yet!

To bring you up to date I did get in another training run last week. I ran a 4-mile route around the neighborhood and that run took place in the rain. It was a decent training run, nothing out of the ordinary to report. It was yet one more run that I was able to record in my running log and 4 more miles added to my total miles completed. Now for the long run…

7 miles. 7 miles. 7 miles. That was all I could think about as I was charting out my route. I decided that I needed to explore areas outside my neighborhood for this long run. I headed over to the naval base with no particular plan in mind. I clocked out a seven-mile route parked the car and was on my way.

I had noted a spot that was 3.5 miles away from where Iplanned to park my car when I was clocking the route and made that my designated turn around point---if I wanted to get back to my car then I would have to run the 3.5 miles back and thus a total of 7 miles. It was a great strategy because I did not have the option of giving up.

It was a cloudy, windy, and rainy day. One of those days that you just want to stay at home all day with a cup of hot cocoa, coffee, or tea and read a good book or in my case read a good children’s book to the girls J. It certainly was not a day that one would exclaim, “This is a great day for a run!” Alas, the time had come for my 7-mile run and I had to get it done.

I have found that I have come to enjoy running in colder temperatures. In fact, the few days that have been spring-like recently have been my worst runs. It will take some time for me to get used to running in the upcoming warmer days. As I started down the road, I realized that this was going to be a long run in the rain.

The part of the base that I chose for my run was in the back of the base by the water. Usually the sun glistens off the water and it is quite a pretty setting. Today the water was quite rough and the cloud cover complete.

It was strange to be out there by myself just running in the rain. A car would pass me every so often and I wondered what the people in the car were thinking or if they noticed me at all. My tunes were blaring in my ears and my legs continued to carry me forward. My lower back was sore and my legs were tired, but not so much so that I felt as though I could not meet the goal. I did take a few walk breaks, but was able to run most of it.

My thoughts ranged from ‘I need new music’ to much more profound things such as the message from the sermon I had heard earlier that morning in church. I had 85 minutes without interruption to think… Think about how far I have come and how very far I still must go. The long runs seem to provide these pensive moments that I have come to treasure.

As I rounded the bend in the road, I saw my car patiently awaiting my return. There is always a brief moment after a long run when I allow myself to think only of the accomplishment rather than focusing on what I still must achieve and my training plan for the next week of running. After this long run there was a moment when a smile crossed my face and I began to chuckle quietly to myself as the thought popped into my head that I had just finished a half of a half marathon.

I have two training runs planned for this week and my first ever race is scheduled for Saturday. It is just a 5K which quite to my amazement I now view as a short run. Until the next entry...

Quote for week 14: Few of us know what we are capable of doing… we have never pushed ourselves hard enough to find out.