Rain....

The rain woke me up pretty early this morning. I lay there dosing. Thoughts drifted through my mind of my many friends whom I knew would be getting up around then to tackle bike rides, and ironman training. I was glad I was doing neither as the rain lashed down, rattling the windows - we have triple glazing too.
I wondered if an ironman would be for me. I don't train well in the mornings and it's not for the lack of trying. I have at various stages of my life, dragged myself out of bed in the middle of the night, well ok, 5am, and gone for moonlit runs. It's never worked for me and I've never got used to it despite giving it a good go.
Apparently it takes just 21 days to make or break a habit - I've usually given myself  4-5 weeks of regular training and all that happens is that I end up very tired, grumpy, and snapping at everyone.
Ironman races tend to start very early too. Just not sure if I'm cut out for it. Anyway, those are things to ponder over the next few months, if not years. I'm in no rush.

The sun came out around lunchtime so I decided to try my luck at another 10k. This time I used a familiar out and back route, a trail run which was going to be a little testing considering the amount of rain which came down last night.
As suspected most of the route had big puddles, and lots of mud. The puddles which I couldn't run around, I just ran through and was surprised to find how deep they were, some coming up to my calf. It was good fun. It was warm and sunny though - just perfect.

I got to the turn around point comfortably enough but realised on turning that I'd been running into a headwind. I mentally prepared for a really nice calm run back and hoped for a negative split.

Best laid plans and all that.....

2 miles from home, the sky darkened, I heard a crash of distant thunder, and then the heavens opened. I've never ran in conditions like that for a very long time. The force of the rain was actually stinging every bare part of my body especially my face. My glasses steamed up, and I literally couldn't see a hand in front of me due to the fog which had rolled in. This lead to an embarrassing near collision with 2 dog walkers and their 4 dogs as they were walking rather fast with heads down, and I was running along doing the same. No hard feelings and despite the horrible conditions, we all saw the funny side.

At around 5 miles I turned off the trails onto the country lane which takes me home to find Bobby driving towards me. He'd seen the weather, got a bit worried, and came out to rescue me. He was rather surprised when, soaked to the skin and hair plastered to my head, I, grinning like mad, refused a lift home. I had to complete the run just for my own sanity (or lack of).

9 or 10 minutes later I turned into my street, big smile on my face, legs and arms red raw, but with the greatest satisfaction I've had from a run in some months.

I didn't get my negative split - missed it by 18 seconds but considering the weather on the return leg, I can't be too disappointed....can I?