The Dilnad can!

Surfin’ The Highlands

81 degrees. A cool breeze rolling off the ocean. White caps. Breakers crashing over the pier leaving a sweet salty mist in the air. Beach bunnies playing volleyball. White nosed lifeguards with their orange floaties. None of these things were present as I hit the waves today.

A mystery(to me) of running is why we will run in conditions that score highly on the “F that” scale. 48 degrees, drizzly, glum, sure, let’s run…..

I was a bit chilly as the drizzle kept me just damp enough for the cool breeze to drop my body temp to just below comfortable. In the end, it was a pretty uneventful run as far as the running goes. In fact, I only almost got hit by an inattentive driver once during the entire run(sadly, this is not an attempt at humor but a harsh reality).

Rain is smart. It loves to wait until you’re several miles in before it graces you with it’s presence so it can laugh at your inability to do anything about the situation. It did not disappoint this morning, It hit right at the halfway point of my 6 miler. It kind of came on like a creeper. Not super hard, just super steady. Before I knew it I was knee deep(fortunately not literally) in the joys of chilly rain running and experiencing all the magic it brings with it.

Water has absolutely no adhesive properties whatsoever when in an isolated state. Add a catalyst however like, say, a polyester shirt, and suddenly it’s as sticky as a chocolate milk stain on linoleum. This adhesive reaction causes your shirt to stick to and adhere to every um, curve of your upper body. If I were chiseled like a Malibu lifeguard, that might not be such a bad thing. Unfortunately I don’t rock a Speedo for a reason!

Another fun part about the rain is technology. Tire technology to be specific(No, I don’t run with tires. Hang with me here. It’s going somewhere <eek, tire joke?>). The modern automobile tire has evolved very considerably over the years. The manufacturers have become quite adept at channeling water away from the vehicle. They achieve this by channeling it on to the sidewalk in a spraying fashion(Ahh, there’s that salty sweet ocean mist) The problem here being that I run on the sidewalk

The pinnacle of the sidewalk surfing experience being when you get to hang, errr, slosh ten! The puddle never actually looks that deep but in you go and all 10 piggies get a nice chilly bath. Slosh, slosh, slosh, slosh, slosh, slosh, slosh. You make that spongy sounding noise for a mile or so, until you’ve stomped the excess water off, or hit another puddle and reset the counter.

Essentially running in the rain sucks, or it should suck. I’m not sure why, but I’d gladly do it again and thoroughly enjoy it again as I did this morning. I’m like the mouse that doesn’t learn from the electrical shocks and just keeps trying to get the cheese over and over.

Surf’s up? Lets run…..