Pinpricks of light through clouds

Today’s run was unpleasant. Yes, Gordon is probably gritting his teeth to hear me say that, so I should clarify: the run itself wasn’t to blame. I was happy as anything to be a runner, doing my runnery thing. The world, on the other hand, seemed quite piqued at my decision to embark upon a runneriffic morning. (I am having such fun with words. Runnosity! Runulous! I think I’m having a runeurysm!) It fought back with wind, rain, cold, and all things…unpleasant. Really, I’m being polite. It was a big ol’ sloppy mess.

My shoes were squelchy by 300 feet into the run. I know this, because that’s when another runner from my club and I found our first puddle, which covered the entire path. By a mile in, my clothes were sodden. A woman running with me commented that at least the wind, which was gusting up beyond 30 miles per hour, was drying us off. Well, maybe it was drying her off; I had opted to dress for the cold, rather than just the wet, and my pants were thicker and quite absorbent. They were more than happy to hang onto every bit of water they found.

It was yucky, and I would have been completely justified in having a bad attitude. But…I was with other folks, either just as dedicated or just as loony as me. We were all getting soaked, and I didn’t hear one word of “Should we cut it short today?” or “I hate this!” There was plenty of good-natured moaning about the rain and wind, but you’d hear the same from folks sitting in their living rooms, looking out the window. We laughed about who was splashing more water out of the puddles. We talked about this and that, things unrelated to the weather at all.

And that’s why I enjoyed my fourteen miles of freezing, windy, soaked-to-the-bone running this morning. I may be a little runsane.