Isaac Provides A Good Soaking

Day 25 -- Sept. 1, 2012

Today I'm 191.6 pounds of rolling thunder.

At least I was at 6 a.m. when I got up to take the boys to their first cross country meet of the season.

Note to self, cross country coach always sends emails late. 

So it's 6:30 and I'm checking the emails as what's left of Hurricane Isaac continues to dump rain on our neighborhood. What started as bands of drizzle about midday on Friday slowly became a steady, calm rain by late in the afternoon, and it stuck around all night.

It appears to be a real drought-breaker, but it's been so long since we've had this much rain I can't tell.

Yesterday I laced up my running shoes and took on Isaac. Well, I took on the drizzle of what was left of Isaac when it came into town.

There are certain things that are great in athletics. Football practice in the mud. The sun shining down on you on a cool morning out on a bike. And call me a fool, but a good run in a warm rain is always enjoyable to me.

 

So even though my running window was limited by work and a desire to go watch my children in the Lancer Day parade, I chose to embrace Isaac and take the long way home.

Friday was my long day so I felt obligated to run my 6.5-mile route. The start of the day was much like the day before. I slogged up the first hill in my run/walk/run manner. And I even made a decent charge to the midway mark of the second.

Maybe it was the magic of Isaac or some unknown fitness kicking in, but my only stops the rest of the way were to wait out stoplights. I climbed the last two long hills and all the rollers without a walk.

When I got home, I was soaking wet. My running shoes had turned my socks a particularly nice shade of burgundy. But the warmth of the day and the refreshing drops of a long-awaited rain made the soaking all worthwhile -- plus, my running shoes really needed a washing. The summer sweat had granted them a personality all their own.

So we carbo-loaded on pizza and got the boys down early -- early for teenagers. 

When the alarm rang at 6:30 a.m. it felt like just minutes had gone by since I shut my eyes. I thought to myself, there's no way they'd cancel a cross country meet if there wasn't lightning.

How wrong a dad can be? After checking emails for 20 minutes, I gave up and started getting ready only to hear from the other room that the cancellation email had arrived.

So much for planning, but thanks so much to Isaac for a good soaking.

Looks like Isaac is sticking around for another day, so if you see the world's slowest human getting a good soaking today, give me a wave.