Running in Rotten Weather!

by Don Leeman

This topic was touched upon this past week, in part, with the subject being running in the rain. It's an excellent topic, and I'm going to expand upon it by drawing upon personal experience.

May 1992 was the time of the Vermont City Marathon. It was my second endeavor, after having run the MCM the previous November 3. The weather for this May morning was horrible: cold, windy, and rainy. The course was a veryoddly-shaped one, and it had its challenging parts, as most marathon courses do. At about mile 9 or 10, the rain let up, and I removed the black plastic garbage bag that I had worn for protection. That was a mistake! Miles 14-20 or 21 were along the shore of Lake Champlain. Normally, that would be very nice, as the lake itself is quite beautiful. However, as I hit that long 6-7 mile path, the rain came back, and the winds whipped up to about 30-40 MPH. They were coming in off the lake, right in the faces of the runners. Mile 16 presented an opportunity of sorts: a chance to walk up some stairs and go to the finish area. In other words; a chance to call it a day. In my mind, I could imagine what my daughters would say, and here's what it "might" have sounded like:

Daughter: "How'd you do today, Dad?"

Me: "Well, I dropped out at mile 16."

Daughter: "Why? What happened? Were you injured?"

Me: "No."

Daughter:"Were you sick?"

Me: "No."

Daughter: "Well, then, why did you drop out, dad?"

Me: "Well, it was raining pretty hard, and it was sort of windy, ya know?"

Daughter: "You mean, dad, that you did ALL OF THAT TRAINING, and then let

A little rain get in your way? WHAT A WIMP!"

Well, there was no way that I was going to let my girls call me a wimp! So, like a fool, I decided to keep going. In spite of everything, I knocked a whopping total of 2 seconds off of my time from the MCM. In one way, some might think that it was not worth it. They would be very wrong, indeed. I learned a very valuable lesson that day, one that has stayed with me ever since. But there's more about running marathons in rotten weather, so reason, my friends!

May 1994 was the Sugarloaf Marathon. Coming on the heels of a good run at Boston the previous month, I felt primed and ready for a strong run. Sugarloaf has one major hill that lasts from miles 6-10, with a climb of about 500 feet. The last 16 miles have a drop of about 1600 feet, with much of it coming in mile 11. That can be tough on the quads, as you know. As it turned out, the quads would be the least of our problems that day. Problem? We started running at 7AM (just 173 runners), and the temperature was about 50 degrees. No shade on the course, and no clouds in the sky. The temperature started to soar. By the time I got to the halfway mark, it was over 80 degrees, with 13 more miles to go. From what I was later told, the temp peaked at about 90. The water stops were spaced about every 3-3.5 miles apart (WAYYYY too far apart!). Yes, I finished on that miserable day, but in a time that I'd rather not mention in public. However, 37 runners dropped out, most of them at mile marker 11 (the entrance to the Sugarloaf ski area). That day, I thought that there was no way that I'd get more lousy weather for a marathon, but I was wrong. WAYYYY wrong!

MCM 1994 was in late October. The day before was a nice, bright, sunny day, perfect for running 26.2 miles. The marathon was scheduled for the next day. Oprah Winfrey was going to be running with us. How nice! We awoke to a driving rainstorm. Most of us on the starting grid were using some sort of covering, either plastic bags, umbrellas, or both! About 30 minutes before the howitzer was fired, the skies really opened up, and the rain became almost a monsoon. The videotape showed that MANY runners were running with their umbrellas UP! Talk about extreme??? SHEEESH! I have often wondered if we really "needed" the water stops that day. All we had to do was just look up and open our mouths, and we'd get plenty of water, without it coming through the fire hydrants! Along the course, there were places where the puddles were pretty deep, and we had to make decisions. Do we run through the puddles, or go around them and run through the 3-4 inch-deep mud? Puddles could have chuckholes in them, and it would be easy to sprain an ankle. Needless to say, I chose the mud route. My nearly new Nikes came home almost black!

So what is the lesson to be learned from all of this? Really, it's quite simple. Marathons are scheduled well in advance, as you know. They don't have "rain dates" or "Hot weather" dates. Unless the conditions are extremely hazardous, the marathons are run as scheduled. We have no choice as to what sort of weather we will face that day. Heat? Cold? Rain? Snow? You need to be prepared! If you only train in perfect weather conditions, then you will have serious trouble when the marathon has weather that is less than ideal. Do you really want to go through all of that training, just to find out that you can't run in a little rain? I doubt it. So, when the weather is bad, be it hot, or cold, or rainy, or windy, or some such combination, get out there and pound the pavement. If you never learn anything else from this article, let it be this: "You find out what you are made of when you see what it takes to stop you." That's a motto that I adopted the night before my first marathon, when I had no idea what it was like to go beyond 18 miles, and had all sorts of doubts. If the Marines had given up at Iwo Jima due to "less than perfect weather", we might be saluting the Emperor of Japan right now, instead of the

Stars and Stripes. All of them gave something, and some of them gave all that they had, even their lives, in the defense of America. You don't have to give your life at the MCM, but you should give it your best effort, and nothing less. Training in ALL weather conditions will make you a stronger, better, smarter runner than the "fair weather" guys and gals who "wimp out" at the sight of one cloud in the sky.