Weekend Report: Rainy Sunday

On Sunday I awoke to a gray and wet day (but warm - holler spring!). After a late Saturday night, preceded by back-to-back 7-milers Friday and Saturday, I was hungry.

What's a DCist to do? Text friends. Go to brunch. STAT. LLC met me at the The Front Page at 1 o'clock for their brunch buffet (I had a coupon, so it was only $10 each). After a bit of a wait they seated us and we proceeded to fill our plates with eggs and smoked salmon and salad and fruit and hash browns and waffles and whipped cream for the next 2 hours. It was soooo good!

At 3:30 we emerged into a rainy afternoon, slightly dazed from our respective food comas. LLC headed home to nap, but I needed to be outside. Weather does not stop me - raincoat on and umbrella in hand I headed to the Mall. The nicest thing about being out in inclement weather in DC is that there are no tourists. (They melt in the rain. It is a fact.)

I had the Mall almost to myself - I walked for an hour and a half, singing along with my ipod and enjoying my daydreams. 

I got back home at 5:40, just in time for 6 pm yoga. A bit ambitious, but I decided to go for it.

There are two sides to the post-brunch-buffet yoga coin:

Side A) I just consumed my body weight in smoked salmon and strawberry whipped cream waffles...thus exercise of any kind is probably be a good idea.

Side B) Bikram yoga is hot, and therefore a scantily clad activity. Shorts/sports bra + room-o-mirrors + buffet belly = not so good for my self-esteem. Nor were the upside-down postures...I may or may not have skipped doing pada-hasthasana in the interest of not throwing up. 

I managed to make it through the 90-minute class, and feel slightly better about myself for doing it. It was still raining by the time I went home...so much rain that my kitchen flooded! (Ah the joys of living in the basement...) 

Rainy Wednesday List

I usually blog about running on Wednesdays, but running and I are not friends right now. We are decidedly un-friends for the time being (yes, yes, I'm not smart, I know). And you know what else I’m un-friends with? Today.

Dear December 1, 2010,

We are not friends.

Love,

Mollie

Because on my very short walk to work I go completely soaked from the waist down. An umbrella is not very helpful when the rain is coming sideways.

In light of this most inauspicious day, I am going to make a list because lists are a great way to deal with everything life can possibly throw your way.

Facts of Today (Pros in green, cons in red):

Pro: I opened the first door on my advent calendar this morning (a teddy-bear shaped chocolate).

Pro: I drank coffee with a splash of eggnog. :)

Con: I had to lie down on my bed just before leaving for work to psyche myself up for the day.

Con: It rained so hard that I arrived at my office completely soaked from the waist down, and thoroughly wet from the waist up. (Like I had to wring out my underwear kind of soaked. Sorry - TMI?)

Pro: I had extra clothes in my desk from yesterday. (This fact totally saved my life. Dry pants = Hallelujah!)

Con: My run lasted 23 minutes last night.

Pro: My run was followed by collard greens, black bean salad, chicken caesar salad and corn bread at Rocklands Barbeque (all hail the Sides Platter!) with 6x6, SpeedyKate, and Jessica.

Con: I spent an hour this morning at a timekeeper training meeting.

Pro: There was coffee and pastries at the aforementioned meeting.

Pro: This list looks Christmas-y.

Pro: Pictures of soaking wet pets amuse me.

And now I feel better. Because all told, my day really isn’t that bad.

Hope you’re having a happy Wednesday!

Running in the Rain

There’s something magical about running in the rain. It’s oddly peaceful – the sound of the raindrops muffles the street noise and the general wetness disallows an ipod. Trails and roads are less crowded since only the super-dedicated or the supremely unfortunate are out on a day like today.

Some of my best running experiences have been in the rain.

I remember one run specifically in high school. It was absolutely pouring, which is rare for Northern California. In a frenzy of excitement my teammates and I ran around Petaluma like a pack of crazies, splashing through puddles and making general mayhem. We ended our run by sprinting around the corner, screaming like soaking wet banshees and cannon-balling into the high school pool, running shoes and all.

In college, my first run with the Cross Country team was a drenching day along the Charles – across the BU Bridge, up through Cambridge, and back along the bike path. That run’s degree of exhaustion and good-workout-achyness set the tone for most of my college running career.

Running in the rain, like running in the dark, somehow feels faster. And I certainly feel more hard-core when I’m the only one running in an all-out downpour. 

My first summer in DC was a particularly rainy one. I ran every evening after work, and sometimes the rain was so heavy I couldn’t open my eyes. I ran along the Mall, watching the lightening strike the Washington Monument and Smithsonian Tower, and wondering if it was unsafe to be out (but obviously not really caring either way).

I’m not a big gear person, but after that eyes-closed run I hit up CVS to get a visor. Visors/hats are absolutely necessary for rainy runs! The brim is like an umbrella for your face, saving you from squinting and keeping your hair from tying itself in wet tangly knots.   

I can only think of one really bad rain-run experience: Cross Country Regionals at Van Cortlandt Park my senior year. It poured all night and all morning, through our warm-up and as we lined up for the gun. The race started with two tight laps around a baseball field that was more of a foot-deep swamp, churned beyond recognition by a couple hundred of the East Coast’s most competitive distance runners. We were so muddy afterwards that a teammate and I took over a gas station bathroom to attempt to wash ourselves for the long ride back to Boston. I don’t think the station manager was too pleased…

Are you a rainy-run fan? Or more of a tentative treadmiller when it gets too wet outside?

PS – I promise you an AMAZING Weekend Report once I get pictures. It involves a wedding in Vail…In the mean time, enjoy the rain!