Running in a hurricane: Check

We all know about Hurricane Irene:

The HMTT (half marathon training team) meets on Saturday mornings to run our long run all together. When driving around town on Friday, all the stores had been wiped out, no bread, no milk, even the bananas were out. Winds starting to pick up and I was looking forward to a Saturday sleep in - clearly, we wouldn't be running on Saturday in the face of Irene.

OH NO. Was I wrong. I got an email late Friday that said they were watching the weather closely and as of that moment the run was STILL ON! Winds weren't expected to really pick up until after 10am - we'd be long done by then. But there was 100% chance of rain so wear a hat and lotion up and bring a smile.

This week was 5 miles.

Matthew pushed me out of bed at 530 Saturday morning. No rain as of yet. I get dressed and get in my car knowing that I'll feel accomplished and happy as soon as this run was over. Half way there the rain starts - and it gets going. 5 miles out from the meeting spot, I pull off the interstate and decide that I am in no way running in this. As I'm turning around to go home, 3 cars pass me with the HMTT bumper sticker on their cars - DANG IT! Guilt got the best of me and I made it to the meeting spot - I get out of my car and I am immediately soaking wet.

Here's evidence:

Me and my new running buddy K at mile 4.5

All in all - the weather cooperated with us. It rained consistently but for the most part was not horrible. My foot fell asleep half way through the run - that's never happened before and it wasn't because of my shoe laces being too tight. So I'll have to keep an eye on that in my future runs.

Hours later, safe in my house, we scurried to get all the laundry done, take showers and hunker down. And it's good we did that because as of this post, we still do not have power and we are out of hot water :(

Total trailing miles: 17.25 Miles
Lessons: Hats work well in rain, eating Oatmeal before my run helps with my energy and cramping