Running in the rain

It was raining here this morning, my husband braved it and went out for his run but I decided to wait until it stops.  While  I will run in cold and snow and even wind, rain is sort of where I draw the line.  But sometimes you have no choice, if you’ve been training for a race and it’s raining come race day it seems like such a waste to ditch the race.  I’ve done a few races  in the rain and honestly, as my mother would say, it is “the opposite of fun.”  She and I were running a half marathon once when we had to slog through it in the rain and cold temps, so she knows of whence she speaks!   Here are my tips to braving a rainy run.

Submit

Seriously, just accept that you are going to be sopping wet so stop trying to avoid those puddles and just get soaked and get it over with.  Once you are saturated, you’re not going to get any wetter so you can forge ahead.

Gear

No amount of gear is going to totally help, especially because your feet are going to be soaked and that’s just about the worst part.  Wearing a hat will keep the rain off your face to a degree and you can always resort to the ultra high tech rain gear option, the trash bag.  Totally waterproof gear is problematic because it will trap heat and even if it’s cold, you’re going to generate heat and you want it to dissipate.  You do want to layer your clothes though, especially if it’s cooler, you want to trap a little heat.

If you are traveling for a race make sure you pack for the opposite weather conditions of what is forecasted as well as for the forecasted weather.  I learned this the hard way.  My second triathlon was a four hour drive away in a small town in Iowa.  My mother came with to cheerlead and keep me company and we arrived the day before the race, when it was 90 degrees and sunny.  This was June, I assumed that weather would hold, as was predicted.  I woke up the next morning and it was a good 35 degrees cooler and pouring rain and I had not brought gear for either condition. My mom was reassuring and said “it’s ok, you don’t have to do the race.” But I had invested time and money so I was in.  And miserable the entire time, but I will never again be unprepared like that!

Find the humor in it

At the very least you’ll get a good war story out of your experience and you’ll find lots of comrades in your commiseration in the race.  So laugh it off, make a few jokes with your fellow runners, and dream of hot chocolate at the finish line.  I did a steeple chase race a few years ago and it poured rain and was cold the entire time we slogged through horse pastures and jumped over fences.  But it is one of the most fun races I’ve ever done.  My friend Charlie didn’t want to wreck his running shoes so he borrowed his brother in law’s lawn mowing shoes which were 2 sizes too big.  Charlie literally ran out of his shoes when they got stuck in the mud.  I fell and rolled down a hill and was covered in mud.  But the turn out was so low that all my friends and I won our age groups and got medals for it!

Post-race

It’s always a good idea to have a complete change of post-race clothes, just in case.  It’s always nice to change into something not stinky anyway!

The quickest and most efficient way to dry out your shoes is to put crumpled newspaper in them.  It works amazingly well.

Your running mix

Here’s something for your running mix to pay homage to our rainy runs.