Maybe not your ordinary 10-mile run

Where to start?

Let me just quickly skip over the pelting rain, high winds, thunder, lightning and blow driers and say that Mike and I had a great run at Smithville Lake early this morning. We did a long, slow run of 10 miles averaging 9:58 per mile. We walked every mile for a minute and kept a comfortable, conversational pace. In terms of running time, we were out there for about 1:40. In terms of real time, it took us closer to 2:30.

It was cloudy when we started out, but it didn't start raining until sometime in mile 2. It was a light rain and was, we thought, fine. What's a little rain? Feels good, actually.

The rain picked up noticeably in mile 3, and off to the north we could see an occasional lightning bolt. We pressed on, talking ourselves into the notion that it wouldn't get THAT bad. Oh, but it did. By 4.5 miles, it was raining good and hard, and it was all we could do to shun the cover of a little wooden two-holer on our way to the turnaround at 5. By the time we got there it was a gully washer. We turned and, instead of walking, high-tailed it back to that aromatic and lightless johnny.

Lovely place, that johnny. I don't want to get into this too much, but we crowded into one of the stalls to wait out the storm for a bit. Mike used the toilet for a chair for a spell, and his bowels just kind of went into autopilot, burping and belching like they were settling in on an NFL Sunday afternoon with the wife gone. Outside, the rain pounded and the thunder boomed. Surely this would pass soon.

And it did, sort of. The rain slowed down enough so we could make a dash for it. Down the path we went for a half mile before the sheets of rain came again, but this time with some serious streak lightning. We passed one campground restroom where - and Mike insists I recount this - I remarked, "It gots light." I was trying to say "It's got lights," but I think I might have been struck by lightning or something. It came out wrong and now I'll never live it down.

We went a bit farther until it got just too frightening, and then spotted yet another fine restroom establishment. We scurried up the hill to it, and literally struck it rich. It had lights, real toilets, and sinks. It was clean. Best of all, it had two wall-mounted blow driers. We hung around there for probably 25 minutes drying our hair, shirts and shorts. By the time we left we were warm and dry. Great place. We'll be back the next time we're in town. Maybe they'll have complimentary hot chocolate by then.

The rain let up finally, so off we went again. It came down relatively lightly for the next couple of miles, but quit completely for the last two miles. Somewhere in those last few miles we ran a couple at near 9 min. Pretty good for a couple of old men.

They say you should run in a storm at least once so you know what it would be like for a race. Now that I've done it I can truthfully say it's ... probably not worth the effort. Still, we got the whole run in, and to a runner, that's all that counts.

Hope everyone else had a good run today, too. -- Rob and Mike