Beating the Rain

Anyone in the northeast (or most of the country for that matter) knows that summer afternoons usually mean thunderstorms. I wanted to try to get in a run, so I had been watching the weather all day Wednesday. It was looking good for squeezing in an after work run.

I got home and got all ready before stepping out. In the 15 minutes it took me to get ready, it had begun to sprinkle. I remember the forecast called for light scattered showers. I looked at the sky and figured the light sprinkles would hold, so I set out.

And I was right… for about 10 minutes. It started raining harder but still wasn’t pouring. I didn’t mind because the slight mist was refreshing and keeping me cool. I thought I should just keep running so I could beat the heavy rain. I wasn’t planning on going on a particularly long run, so I just ran a little faster. When I’m literally at the furthest point from my apartment, the sky lets loose. People were scurrying for shelter, and here I am, like a crazy person, running in the rain. I usually make it a point to run with my MetroCard (in case I ever get hurt, or just plain don’t want to run any more) but since this was a short run, I didn’t bring it. I had no choice but to run home.

I just kept running and running and it kept raining harder and harder. It was raining so hard, water was getting stuck in my ear and I couldn’t hear my iPod. I ditched the headphones and just kept running. My shoes were making squishy noises. I leapt over puddles and rivers in the street. My clothes were sticking to me. Something about this whole thing suddenly struck me as hilarious, and I began laughing hysterically. It felt like when you were a kid and you didn’t care about getting wet or how your hair looked. It felt like I was playing and my wet run turned into something fun. So now I’m the crazy person running in a torrential downpour, laughing hysterically, having tons of fun.

The last 5 minutes was a little less fun. My shoes felt like they weighed 10 pounds each from all the water, but I still found the squishy noise they made hilarious. I made it home as quickly as I could, and wouldn’t you know, by the time I made it safely upstairs, the rain had stopped altogether. Just my luck.

I felt kind of like a wet puppy, so this is my sad, wet puppy face.

This goes to show- you may not beat the rain, but you don’t have to let the rain beat you! (That’s corny, I know, but I was trying to be positive.)