Rain, okay. I can deal with it. Thunderstorms though? Ugh. That's race-cancelling weather. Not to mention I hate thunderstorms. I've been through a lot of weather events and even natural disasters--tropical storms, borderline Hurricanes, a tsunami (that's a fun story for another time) and a couple of earthquakes. Out of all of those, it's thunderstorms that freak me out.
Then the next morning the weather report looked like this...
Okay, phew. Rain I can possibly deal with on a trail run. I can embrace running in the mud and wet sand. So then the plan was to just finish. Last year's time was 53:38. Still pretty good, and potentially beatable. Either way, I told my husband he could sit this one out. The weather was going to be the exact opposite from the previous year, and I didn't want him to spend his Sunday morning sitting in a car.
The morning of the race was no big surprise--rainy, windy, cold and GROSS! I had dressed the part, decided to more or less "embrace the suck" since I knew I was going to get wet or at least my arms and torso were going to be dry. I had set aside my LSD rain jacket, nuun visor, long sleeved Brooks shirt, and my be-free knickers for the race. I also slathered my feet with body glide to help prevent blisters (I'm pretty sure paper tape wouldn't have held!)
Game face and rain jacket are ON! (This is after a quick trip in the rain to the portajohn.)
About 10 minutes before gun time, I decided it was time to brave the rain. Fortunately I managed to run into the former manager of my favorite running shop who left to become a Saucony rep. I hadn't seen him in a while (since last year's Cinco de Miler) but when I saw somebody dressed in head to toe Saucony, I had a feeling it was him! He came over and we chatted for a little while until gun time.
During the race itself, I feel like I spent more time concentrating on not stepping in all the puddles. Despite my best effort, my shoes were totally sloshy by mile 2. My rain jacket had also failed and I was starting to feel puddles gathering in my sleeves by my elbow. I was able to ignore it until the fourth mile, when I pulled open the elastic at my wrist and pointed my arm down and about an eighth of a cup of water poured out. (Doesn't sound like much, but it was when it was filling up the sleeve of my jacket!) This has happened before with this jacket in light rain when I wasn't running so to be honest, I should've known not to wear it.
The different terrains were interesting to try in the rain as well. During pre-race announcements the race staff said to be careful on the wooden bridges because they were super slippery (they were right.) And just running through the mud, and the wet sand definitely made things interesting.
By the end of the race I was totally ready to grab my snacks and water, change, and head home. I was tired of being wet and now I was extra gross because of the mud and I had sand all over my calves and in my shoes. After getting my super important snacks (granola bar, banana, pretzels and water) I went back to my car and prepped it for my drenched self to sit for the 40 minute drive home. I quickly shook off some of the water from my jacket and tossed it into the backseat then put a towel down on the driver's seat, threw on a big sweatshirt and then changed my socks. However I was still cold and shivering the whole way despite cranking up the heat in my car.
This is how I looked after the race. I was so done being wet and gross.
Despite the adverse weather conditions, it was still a really fun race. (Sorry for not too many pictures of this one--I was concentrating on finishing!) I finished in 51:30, over 2 minutes faster than last year's time of 53:38! I would totally do this race again in a heartbeat. It's great scenery and completely flat so it makes for a great beginner trail race as well.
Seriously, look at that elevation chart! Could it BE anymore flat? (Garmin says it starts out at 10ft of elevation and the peak is 17ft.)
While the weather made it less than ideal, it was still a great race. I learned a lot from running it all over again, like I need a new rain jacket for running, having a roll of paper towels is a great idea (to wipe off mud and sand post-race), slathering your feet in body glide does have its merits in rainy conditions, and like I've said in other posts: Embrace the suck. I was miserable on that drive home, but now I know that it's better to bring too many clothes to change into post-race than to not bring enough.
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