Running in the Rain

I slogged up Staunton's New Street hill at about 5:45 p.m. A gentleman making his evening transfer from car to home smiled and said, "Wasn't Saturday's ten miler enough?"

Actually that One Hill of a Run, as the organizers called it, did seem like it had been enough as I forced myself out the door. "Only the strong will survive," wrote those who had run the course before the race. And they weren't wrong.

Even so, I knew needed to run my crazed emotions into submission. As I headed up Points, I realized I wasn't even winded. I smiled as I remembered how just a few months ago I thought I'd never reach the top of New Street without having to walk part way. Yet here I was, still running - up Points, up Prospect and on to the blessedly flat track. One more mile and I could start intervals. Just as I finished the warm-up, a good steady rain fell.

Remembering what had worked during Saturday's rae, I opted to work on form and to avoid being a clock-watcher. I WAS tired after all, and I HAD just finished a ten-miler followed by a recovery run on Monday. Even so discipline and routine are the things that "make" a runner. So I ignored the clock and coached myself, repeating the mantra my running coach taught me four years ago when at age 46 I first started running. "Lift your legs. Pump your arms. Breathe."

I also concentrated on some tips I'd read in Runners' World. Bend a little. Line up shoulders and hips. Launch from the balls of your feet. Keep the shoulders relaxed. Concentrate.

A drizzle turned into a steady rain. I LOVE running in a steady rain - not a gully washer, necessarily, but I love running in ion loaded, freshly laundered air. The first 800 - 4:28. About 15 seconds faster than goal pace. I jogged a lap, reset my chronograph and started another interval, watching my form and not the clock. 4:24. Another lap at a jog pace. A quick stop to down some water and then the last interval. Another 4:24.

During my one-my cool down I thought this week's lessons on life, lessons learning while running. My best scores have come, success has come, not when I watched the clock, but when I watched the details under my control - monitoring where I placed my feet; remembering to keep pumping the arms; and maintaining a hard, but steady breathing rate. Set reachable goals, time managers say. Don't list things outside your control, such as a 5, 7 or 9-minute-mile pace. Instead set goals you CAN maintain - speedwork on Wednesday, tempo runs on Monday, long distance on Saturday, maintaining form. The results will come through steady plodding through those things within our control.

I thought about my life and the frustrations weighing me down as I began the run. "The Lord WILL restore the years the locusts has eaten," the Bible says. I think that's in Job. I've been claiming that promise for years now, sometimes with great faith; but more often in pure desperation. But honestly the Lord is restoring. I earned a second B.A. summa cum laude this year - through two years of steady, disciplined efforts in my studies. I ran ten miles.

Yes, there are times when life seems pure drudgery and times when it seems there is no gain from minding the daily details. Some days, in fact, it seems the effort is purely wasted and the locusts eat the crops no matter how carefully the seeds were planted and nutured. Even so....the results will come, but only with continued, steady effort.

Learn more about this author, Anieta P. Mccracken.
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