Rain or Shine

4 years ago I was a good weather runner. This means that I just went for a run if it was sunny and nice outside. It did not matter if it was cold, but it did matter if it was raining or even if there was a slight chance for it. When I was driving and it was raining hard, and I saw runners running, I always thought of them as the most crazy, fanatic people in the world. Who in hell would voluntarily go out for a run on a rainy day? Or even worse, on a strong thunderstorm? This kind of craziness was not for me at all.
When I decided to run my first half marathon I knew I needed to join a running clinic. Up to that point I had run 10K races and trained all by myself (with my dog). I knew that to go beyond 10K I needed people running with me, motivation, stories to take me beyond my limits.
When you are part of a running clinic, you build relationships and pretty soon you have a great group of friends that become your running buddies. Having a group of people to run with, changes your approach to running. You tough up a little bit (or a lot), in part, because you do not want to be the “baby/chicken” of the group that did not go for a run because it was raining. Even if it is pouring rain when you are leaving home, you know everyone is going to be there (and they are). None of us like it, but we do it, we learn to run through rain, cold, wind, puddles, car splashes, snow, ice, and running noses. And when we finish we always say, “I can’t believe we just did that.”
This is why I keep running with my group, because as a group we become a larger entity that can overcome lots of obstacles. I know if I have to run by myself under the pouring rain, I still would not do it; with my group, we do it almost every week.
Now when I am driving and it’s raining and I see someone running under the rain, I smile and I get it. I have become a running fanatic and even though I keep being very sweet I learned not to melt under the rain!

My animal lover note: