Weather To Be trusted

Last night at around 05:30 the alarm went off and either before or afterwards I heard lightning. I also heard very heavy rain. The question was whether the weather app was to be trusted. I could see that it would rain heavily while I walked from home to the meeting point but that for the duration of the rain it would remain dry.

I chose to take a good raincoat and walked in the rain towards the meeting point. For a moment I thought that I would be alone. Luckily two others turned up, including the person that suggested the run.

I removed the good raincoat for one that is easier to see and then we ran. The course had quite a few climbs. We also had the small group effect. The small group effect is that people run faster. For the first two kilometres the pace was faster than my usual, while uphill. Eventually I asked to slow down so they did.

We had quite a few puddles, and we ran along dirt tracks, with more puddles, some of them quite deep. In some places the path was flooded so I had to choose where to pass to get least wet.

I struggled on this run because of the pace, and because of the gradient but also because of the distance. We ran 8km, 5 miles. I usually don’t run that distance, and not at that pace, uphill.

Am I discouraged from running with these people? Absolutely not. I would however have an espresso rather than a coffee right before the run. I would also avoid going for a 30+km run at 26 km/h the day before. Being fatigued and with a coffee to process wasn’t ideal.

If I had looked at the weather I would not have run, due to the heavy rain, but because I looked at the weather forecast I estimated that it was safe to do this run without getting drenched. Ironically, it rained on and off, heavily, for the entire day.

And Finally

The title is a pun, whether the weather is to be trusted or not, and the forecast was. This isn’t a bike ride, or rock climbing. This is running, and if you get drenched it’s shoes and a track suit, not a bike and its components.

It’s nice to have sports that can be done whatever the weather.