12 Mile Run ... Not!

Got up on time today, that's a plus. Ate, stretched, prepared myself, plus, plus, plus. Kissed the hubster goodbye, plus. Went out to the car and noticed the cloud coverage, plus! Maybe 12 miles won't be too bad.

At the park, the crowd had gathered. I found my team and we were reviewing the route. Our head coach called us to order and mentioned the possibility of rain, and maybe some thunder and lightning (a cloud lights up behind her). Some more talking, some more clouds lighting up. "If you're uncomfortable heading out, that's OK, you can make up the run on your own," but everyone is ready to run, so we all head out.

As we pass the Middle School, the clouds are huge and ominous, rolling towards us. Someone says, "I feel like Dorothy," but we all are certain that we won't be lifted high into the sky. We start our run and feel a few rain drops. I see my old team and chit chat with them a minute while running. They pass us and we eventually make our turn off of Oxford Road. Bolts of lighting and thunder are pretty common by then, but I mostly ignored them. One of the coaches drives past us, catches up with old team and tells them to turn around, the run is being canned. So we all do an about-face and head back to our cars. By now the rain is really hard; this has grown from a sprinkle to a rain, to a storm. I caught up with my old team to run back with them a bit quicker. A car with one of our people passes us and offers a ride for two of us, but we pass it up since there were three of us. Then, one of our coaches drives up and doesn't offer, but commands us, "GET IN THE CAR!"

"Are we going to sit on each other's lap?" one of us asks.

"We grew up in the 70's, it's OK," I reply.

The thought of three of us piling into an already occupied sedan was hysterical to me! Our mom-figure yelling at us to get out of the rain, all of us obeying, two of us climbing into a back seat with two gals already there - I found it a riot. It reminded me of being in grade school, being driven to band practice - SEVEN of us in a small Honda, two in the bucket seat in front, and five of us in the back seat, instruments and book bags and bodies shoved everywhere. With my reunion only a few weeks behind me, this was really an exciting and wonderful memory to relive. However, as an adult in 2008, I knew the situation was not great, and our coach was not happy with it or the prior decision of letting us run. But this is the thing memories are made of, you couldn't plan this!

We get back to the park and our coach was heading out to pick up more soggy runners. After we sprung out of the car like clowns, I heard one girl say, "I think that's a cheerio on your back." I mean, if you can't find the humor in it!

Total time running 24 minutes. I have to run the 12 miles on me own now within 24 hours. Hello YMCA! What a hoot.

PS - As I drove home, I had to use the high-speed wipers and there were lightning bolts and thunder claps so close you couldn't even count "one one-thousand". They did the right thing by calling it. However, I bet within a half hour, it had passed. By then, I was changed and snuggy in my bed again. The kids were still snuggy on their own, and we were able to greet 8:00 on a Saturday in bed! I was expecting a good morning, but it sure did turn out differently than I had planned! A very different kind of good!