Mad dogs and Englishmen

As a boy, I lived in Africa. We had two seasons: wet-and-hot, and not-as-wet-and-hot. Venturing outside at noon was not advised nor often practiced. For those occassions I did, my Father taught me the saying only " mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun".

I'd like to amend that line from the song by Noel Coward to include running in rainstorms that crash down out of the Gulf of Alaska.

As I headed out for the trailhead and a planned 10 mile big hill run, the gods were soaking California with a pelting rain and winds out of the southwest at 14-20knots, according to NOAA. I will atest to those facts having sampled them over the 1:43 minute and 11 mile (actual) run. It poured. The rain howled. I was half frozen. And it was just an awesome, fun time! There were only 3 others mountain bikers on the trail--they were covered with mud and soaked to the bone. But they, like me, were smiling from ear to ear as we passed. There's nothing like being in the middle a little of Mother Nature's mild storms to make things that much greener, that much brighter, and that much more. The intensity knob goes up a knotch or two.

Despite some fierce headwinds and some bite to the cold due to the temperature and wet skin I had a good steady pace and was almost comfortable in my shorts and rain jacket. Once again, my Salomon's did the trick with the wetness. My feet only got slightly damp most likely from wicking IN moisture from my socks.

By the time I made it back to the trailhead, the rain had stopped and the cloud layer became more ragged so that some sun peaked through on occassion. This made the 15 mile road bike ride a little more pleasurable although riding into the wind was like peddaling with a parachute.

All in all it was a greatrun and ride combo day!