Today's Run Report : Soakers. With a more than a chance of "Oh my God could I stop getting rained on please"

In case you haven't figured it out,  we ran 28Km in the piss-pouring rain.  Why would you do that on purpose you ask?  Here's a little insight into Jessica and I and how we bargain with and enable each other in ridiculous ways.

FRIDAY  (all via text message)

Jessica:  We need a plan for our run.  Saturday?  Sunday?
              Sunday is warmer, maybe raining
              Saturday is colder with flurries
              Sunday afternoon looks to be 8 degrees an sunny

I have not replied yet but can you see the selling already starting from my running mate who hates cold and winter?

Me: I would rather run in the morning.
      ( Challenge : This does not work well for Saturday unless we run wicked early in the cold, as one of the kiddos has a swim test that I'd like to be there for)

Jessica:  me tooo.  But.......8 degrees......and sunny!  It's like a dream  ha ha.   (notice the layering of the sales shtick)

Me:  It would be nice but what if it's raining?

Courtesy of the handy dandy weather app my techno savvy mate has she sends me ..........

Jessica:  It appears that it will rain from 3am - 9am Sunday ( selling not only time but a lack of rain)
              If we run @ 7am on Saturday it will be -10 before windchill ( remember, she hates winter)

Knowing that I can make my chum happy , and that I know how this will work best, I give back:

Me:  How about we stick with our original plan of running Sunday, we start at 9am and take  whatever comes at us.

And ta-daa there you have it how we ended up with a Sunday run. 

Here's how that went:

Woke up to rain,  not surprising since it was on the weather app and we knew it was supposed to stop by 9:00am.  (This did not end up being the case)
Pulled everything together for a soggy run including a change of dry clothes, recovery snack and a towel.  Made the drive to our trusty Running Room where we were meeting another one of our running friends who was going to join us for 16km of our run.   Upon arriving she looked at me and said "are we really running in this?"  To which I answered with "if you paid for a race entry and on race day it rained, would you run?"  Nuff said.  Off we go.

Now  yes, we knew it was raining, and yes we knew it was going to be challenging to get through 28Km in said rain but I cannot begin to tell you the level of effort it took when after 9Km we were so soaking wet that it no longer mattered which layer of slush or puddle we ran through just as long as we could keep going.
We began to talk of how great it would be if one of the crazy husbands could meet us at 15km with dry clothes.  Or what the possibility would be of one of them driving along side us with a portable heater or golf umbrella. We debated running to a local gym and taking up 2 dreadmills for the remainder of our run but knew this was not realistic.  I think  each of us was silentlymaking deals with the devil about the swapping of souls for the stopping of rain.   When this didn't work,  we cursed Mother Nature, loudly and frequently.  
When all was said and done,  we were cold, wet, and sore from all the dodging of puddles and slush but,  we did it.  Just as we always do,  with humour and determination.  Oh and let us not forget the ever important  LATTE LATTE LATTE!

Long may we run,

D.

Sometimes, the run just SUCKS.

We were scheduled to run 24km today.  We decided a little bit later than one usually does, to run the Mississauga Marathon on May 5th.  It is the 10th anniversary of the event, and after a series of text messages that proves we enable each other, we decided to do it? (Thank goodness our addiction is running!)

After all it was this very race weekend, last year, that kick started the Deux of us on our crazy adventures.  So there you have it.  We are once again earning ourselves some post-run lattes!

LATTE, LATTE, LATTE!

Sorry, I digress.

Anyway, back to the story of our scheduled 24km run.

We ran 21km, last weekend in a very frigid -27C, and we certainly felt prepared for today.  But the running gods apparently had other plans.  You know how for most runs, for the first 8-10 minutes, you feel a little sore, or stiff, or gangly?  It tends to take a while to loosen up those muscles, get them warmed up and find your stride.  Well, today our run started out no differently.  Unfortunately it ended no differently either.

So frustrating.  So far, we haven't been able to determine why, it seems to be just one of those things.  The terrain was decent, a few wet and slippery areas, but nothing too treacherous - with the exception of Loach's trail- which ran the gammut of snowy, wet, icy, muddy and gross.

By 12km we were tired, by the top of the South Bay road hill (fondly called @#$%#$ South Bay, by me), we were about 16km in and we were exhausted.  We had fueled well, we were hydrated.....but we were tanked.

It was about another 2km after that, as we came out the Loach's Road end of the trail that we knew we were done,  We had another 6-7km to go, but we were running sloppy, slouching and generally miserable.

All of that can lead to injury, so we decided to head back to the store, adding on a tiny side street loop that would get us to 20km.  It can feel a bit like a failure to have to cut a run short, but I am confident we made the right choice.

We are not doing this to qualify for Boston, or attain a specific finishing time.  We know we are going into this less fit than when we ran Montreal. We simply want to finish.

At the beginning of each run, we always say "NO WHAMMIES", meaning no injuries, or falls, or otherwise unfortunate mishaps, that could derail our plans.

Although we are both sore, we finished with "NO WHAMMIES" and that is a very good thing. As Denise says, that was our reckoning run. And now we move on to better things, and longer distances.

A small piece of trivia for you: The last time the DCA cut a run short was on this VERY eventful adventure.

**We will be fundraising for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, so please stay tuned for details and links!

Long may we run.

Jessica

Post Long-Run Lattes.

Well deserved Hazelnut Macchiatos after an 18km run.

What could the Deux Crazy Anglophones be up to?

Stay tuned!