Do it in the Rain

Living in the Pacific Northwest provides it's own unique challenges to daily life. Fall has come and with it the return of the (in)famous cloudy skies and drizzle. As one might expect, it rains here a lot, but less than you might think. Seattle/Tacoma do not even get close to the top ten list of most rain in the contiguous US, but we do win the battle of most days with rain per year. (LINK to some stats) There are rarely thunderstorms, it just barely rains enough all the time to keep everything grey and wet. This is why most people think we get so much rain. Perception is reality.

A common question I get from friends is, "If it rains all the time, how do you get things done?" A question I often asked myself when I first moved here. The simple realization is this: Plan to do everything in the rain. If it doesn't rain, well that's a bonus. This leads us to the photo... if you want to go running, join a gym to run on a treadmill (which I hate) or enjoy a nice refreshing sprinkle as you run in the rain. If you do this regularly, it does require several pairs of shoes on a rotating drying schedule, but other than that, until the temperature drops into the low 40's I'm pretty OK with it. Porter is attached to me via a leash belt which I believe Sarah got me for x-mas a while back. It's really great as I can stay hands free and Porter pulls me up and down hills. One might think that with the pulling force of the dog, I would run faster, but after stopping all those times for him to use the bathroom, I think he actually slows me down.

Porter has been helping me train for a 50K run in October. He's run as much as 14 miles with me on training runs. Other than when he wants to stop to sniff stuff, which is almost every 100 yards, he is incredible at keeping a constant pace throughout the run. As I get tired and want to slow down, Porter reminds me that we need to keep the pace up to his minimum effort trot speed. I think Porter is part sled dog, and I've been greatfull for his company on many a long training run.

For information on the 50K in October - try HERE

For the reasons why I shouldn't have told you my goal about running a 50K go HERE - Let's just say psychology is so cool! ...and don't ask me about the run until AFTER the event.