Horrible Weather

I came back to my parents house for the weekend. Since I decided on a cheesesteak for lunch, I didn't run until after 4 PM. Right before I started to run, it began to rain.

I ran my typical favorite route through the neighborhood across from my old elementary school. It's an easy 4 miles with a few hills. I haven't run it in awhile, but didn't anticipate a problem. The roads in that neighborhood were recently paved, so that was nice.

I wasn't sure what to wear. Even though the rain stopped when I started, it was still cloudy, windy and cold. I elected to throw on a sweatshirt over the Lancaster Half Marathon shirt.

It was rough early on as I faced a lot of wind. After running hard on Wednesday, I settled into a nice, comfortable pace. The weather was really the only factor in the run. Up until about the halfway point, it was very windy.

After changing directions, the wind disappeared. I noticed that the sky was getting very dark and not just because it was getting late. It didn't look good, but I figured it would be over 15 minutes until the weather actually approached.

I started to get hot so I tied my sweatshirt to my waste. After about 2 minutes, it began to pour. I put the sweatshirt back on. The rain was brutal. It was a very cold November rain. It was blowing sideways too, because of the wind. It was almost unbearable.

The most surprise came though when I saw lightning and heard thunder. Since when does this happen at this time of year? Luckily, it only occurred once as I was finishing up.

The final mile was a little cool, but pretty comfortable. I hit one short turn against a strong head wind though. I couldn't have run much longer in those conditions. I finished up at a nice pace and then walked. I couldn't wait to get indoors.

I'll be running 12 miles here on Saturday. I think I'll run up to my old high school and back. That's actually only about 10 miles though, so I'll have add on a little more. I'm really enjoying this taper period. My legs are starting to recover and things should get even better.

My friend already asked where her couch to 5K plan is. I have to get on that I guess, although I don't think she'll start running until after the winter. Maybe she'll surprise me. I really look forward to trying to work with her. It should be a nice challenge and also fun.

4 miles - 34:10 (8:33 pace)