My First Run in the Rain

It wasn't a great turnout. Walt and Melissa didn't make it.
Atif hasn't been running for a while. So I was glad to have
Ed and Karl to run with.

It wasn't pouring. It felt cool and distracting and soon we
each gathered some lbs of rain to carry. My heavy clothing
(underpants and long running pants) must have collected more
water--a psycological burden. In the dark, I needed to
constantly adjust the headlight so that I could see where we
were going. Ed was no better equiped. He was carrying a
water bottle in one hand while water was falling from the sky ;-)

The three of us ran to the levee for the first 5 miles. We
talked about shoes and Karl said he liked cushioning. I
observed that minimum shoes made a comeback at non-minimum
prices. He told me also that he hiked in the wild without
bearspray. Once we were back on the hill, the darkness
started to fade and the rain became a drizzle. It felt slow
but not terrible. Karl sped up and left us. His tall and
gaunt figure disappeared in a short while. Leaving the toll
plaza on our way back, the trail became muddy and I felt
another couple of lbs were added to my feet.

One good thing about the wind and rain was that it felt
cool, which was great for jogging.

On our way back, we saw a big deer at the side of the trail.
He was startled and looked gingerly at us with big eyes.

We finished 11.75 miles at a pace of 9:15 which, with the
rain factored in, was not bad at all. We were slow in the
first 11 miles but mile 12 took only 6:31.