Rock and Rain

Around this time of year, the weather’s battling between dry and wet, and we runners frequently get caught in the crossfire. During my long runs in the last two weeks, I had to push through light showers — never enough to soak my shoes.

Tonight was different.

After a long day rushing to write articles before their deadlines, I decided to run laps around the UP Academic Oval after dinner. I live only a few kilometers from the campus, so it only takes me five minutes to get there using my car. (I’ve never run from home to UP since I keep water and clothes in the car.)

As I was dressing, I heard thunder in the distance. The noise of the creek outside my window increased suddenly, so I thought it was raining. But when I stepped out of the house, we were dry as bones. I thought, “Somewhere upstream, it’s raining hard.”

On the road, within the span of two minutes I went from dry pavement to rain-spattered asphalt. It was raining in patches, and I hoped that UP was a dry patch.

No such luck; as I parked in front of Palma Hall, the rain was coming down in big drops. But I saw a few runners on the road, so I switched Kiko on and decided to make the best of it. I knew it hadn’t been raining long in the area because the asphalt road was steaming with the day’s heat.

Then the skies decided to let it all break loose. It all turned to white, the road flowed with runoff, and I was soaked through. So were my shoes —  my new Asic GT 2150, which I’ve been breaking in this week. Talk about a baptism…

All things considered, the run was only uncomfortable because of rainwater running into my eyes and sloshing around in my shoe. I didn’t feel cold because my exertion was generating enough heat to keep me warm. It almost felt like a trail run with an extended river crossing: I had to watch where my feet were going so I wouldn’t inadvertently step into a hole or slip on a slick surface.

I encountered other crazy runners doing the same thing I was. One of them even told me, “Good job!” which made me feel good about braving the rain.

In fact, the only thing that scared me off completing more than the 5.5 kilometers I logged tonight were the frogs. I am deathly afraid of them, alive or dead. So even though I didn’t see any frogs as I ran, I could hear them ribbit in the grass on the side of the road. Yuck!

(Photo courtesy of Carlo Serrano.)