sunday dianne and i started out together for what we thought was going to be a nice long run; hers for an hour or so, mine for just past 90 minutes. it’s been raining almost every day here for the last month but we didn’t figure it would rain on us. it did. alot. after running east about 20 minutes dianne looked behind us (to the west where the really strong storms come from) and said, “oh, that’s thunder. hey, have you looked behind us to the west?” i look… and think to myself, its pretty far away and hopefully it won’t be that big or strong. the entire western horizon is dark and foreboding. i say, “yes i have” and shrug. well…
i chose to run out further and she headed back for home. enter heavy, torrential sheets of rain, strong, whipping winds and lots of thunder and lightning. also enter my first opportunity to be afraid that i might get struck by lightning if i tried to run back home (3 miles) or to all those great places to wait out the rain that i ran by 5-10 minutes ago. i waited under a tree against a fence which was out of the wind, but not the rain. fortunately it wasn’t cold. the dripping dianne was waiting it out in a gas station about .75 miles from home and got a ride from a kind lady. i called a little while later from a little store and she picked me up. there was something oddly exhilarating about being exposed to the power of nature standing there under my tree.
i don’t anticipate doing that again, hopefully ever. dianne wasn’t to upset for leaving her in the rain, either. hey, if we lived in the northwest, wouldn’t we run in the rain pretty often? well folks, does this make us real runners now?
happy running!
