Running, even in the rain.

So I ran in the rain tonight.  That's not something that I do all that often, and most people feel like it's something to be avoided.  I agree, and usually am able to work around the weather which, let's face it, isn't as bad as everyone from New England makes it out to be.  Usually if it's raining in the morning when I'm supposed to run I can wait until the evening and it won't be that bad.  I was tempted not to run at all tonight, but all of my other attempts at running this week had been thwarted by frigid temperatures and general not-wanting-to-get-out-of-bed-ness.  I needed to run today otherwise the 10 (or 12) miles on Saturday would not be good.

Tonight was a group run set up by an Irish Pub in Boston called Crossroads.  They host a regular Thursday night run out of their second floor bar that is free to all but is mostly populated by people running Boston for charity.  Oh yeah, when a runner says that they're "running Boston" it's shorthand for the Boston Marathon, that's just a thing.  Tonight the running group was small, I think it was 2 groups of about a half-dozen each.  

Like I said, I wasn't super psyched about running in the rain and was a bit worried about not having a waterproof shell to wear over my cold-weather clothes like everybody else.  The idea was to run a 4.1 mile loop around the river, passing the Double Tree hotel that my folks stayed in last time they were here.  Word before we left was that some people were running an extra loop to get up to 4.5 miles.

Outside the bar the wind seemed to have come up, but it wasn't quite pouring yet so that's something.  We got to the river on on the ramp on the way down I pulled ahead of everybody.  The funny thing about running is that I never feel like I'm running fast, it just sometimes feels that the people around me are running slower than normal.  I was by myself right up until the bridge crossing that would've taken us 4.1 miles.  In my mind I had committed to doing the 4.5, I was feeling pretty good, so I joined up with 3 other people who had caught up to me and we headed towards the next bridge.  About three quarters of the way there Sheri Olivet, Chair of the Runner's Council, suggested that we go one more additional bridge for a total of 5.1 miles.  This was a bit more than the 4.1 I had been planning on, but who am I to say no the Council Chair?  

The wind got bad at times but never as bad as I feared it would -  it can get pretty bad on the Charles - even crossing the nearly half-mile long Mass Ave Bridge that is the home stretch.  At some point I went from tolerating the run to really really enjoying myself.  It's a weird transition that is hard to understand or to put your finger on, but it happens during some runs.  I found myself wishing that I had my camera with me several times because the city was draped in fog and the lights of the buildings were lighting up the clouds.  The lights of Fenway were on for no particular reason, but that happens a lot.  Plus there these random times when traffic along Memorial Drive would come to a lull between red lights and for a few precious seconds it would get quiet and dark - a rare thing in Boston.  Totally worth it.  

I felt really strong crossing the Mass Ave bridge, and felt great when I got back to the bar.  not just because I was done running running, but be because I had had a good run.