4 miles in the rain - negative splits

I woke up in the middle of the night to a major downpour. I thought - wow - this morning is a 4 mile run, I hope it slows down a bit before time to get up and get going.

When I rolled out of bed at 4:45 it seemed to have stopped raining so I proceeded to get ready and do all my Monday morning measurements. I was looking forward to my run on this rainy, 61 degree, 99% humidity morning. I finished up and headed out the door at about 5:15. When I walked out the door I noticed the rain had not stopped, but was very light.

The rain came and went the entire run, but since it had rained so hard overnight I had the wonderful enjoyment of puddle hopping, and trying to find all the puddles in the dark (or not find them as it be this morning) I did pretty good at missing most of them, but a couple times the light was not good enough to keep from the splash. I can only wonder how many worms lives were ended under the soles of my running shoes.

My run went really good, and I felt really good. I ended up with an 8:50 average mile on my 4 miler. I had negative splits of 9:26 - 9:15 - 8:45 - 8:16 which I was very happy with.

Rain Glorious Rain

Down here in Georgia where the bread and soup lines are getting ready to turn into drinking water lines, it is a wonderful morning when you wake up to the pitter patter of a good rainfall on the skylight.

A good rainfall is a welcome commodity, but couple that with 37 degrees and I am overjoyed..... overjoyed that this morning is not a running morning!

There still was a smile on my face as I dressed for success (shorts and a t-shirt) and headed out the door to go to the gym for a good workout. It was amazing to see the added bodies occupying the treadmills as it looks like others were happy to see the rain.... just not on their running morning. :)

36 degrees, rain/sleet/snow - 8 miles

Well, I knew what the forecast was, but I still wanted to get my long run in.

The run started with 36 degrees and it was raining. I was taking off on a new course which was a 8 mile circle. (as a side note, you can see if you look at linked map of my running route, I passed by the Ronald Reagan Parkway - this is where my First Half Marathon will be run in less than a month) After mile two I started seeing and feeling sleet mixed in with the rain. By the time I got to mile 3 snow was starting to make it's appearance. I stopped at a gas station to get some gatoraide just about mile 4 and then continued on in the snow. As the run progressed, so did the snow. By the time I got to mile 7 it was starting to stick.

The picture to the left was as I was walking back up to the house following my run. You can see I actually even have some snow on the front of my shirt just like cars have from driving into the snow. Wow! I must run fast! :) OK, maybe not.

The forcast changed a couple times, but they are still saying we will get between 1 and 2 inches, which is a lot for here in Atlanta. I think I was turning a lot of heads this morning as people passed me by on the roads. I didn't see any other runners and only a couple people walking their dogs.

I almost gave in

If you live in the north, then you will probably laugh at me, but here in Atlanta we don't get this very often. Last night we got some snow, which shortly later turned to a sleet/rain mix. The kids were all excited, both for the snow and the possibility of no school today.

This morning being a running morning I had every intention of getting up and running, regardless of the weather, but when I got up this morning and it was still going with a sleet/rain mix I started coming up with excuses. I figured I could go to the gym and run the dreadmill, but easily convinced myself that if it was too bad outside to run, it was also too bad to drive to the gym.

Here is where the "almost" comes in. At 4:50, I put all rationalization aside and started getting dressed to run in this weather. By 5:05 I was out the door and it was nowhere near as bad as I expected it to be. The 33 degrees kept the road from freezing so I had nothing to worry about as far as ice went. My run went really good with only occasional rain enough for me to even notice. It did start raining more during mile 6, but all in all it was a very pleasant 10k.

Next time I need to not be so quick with the excuses.