When the storm comes in.

I jumped out of bed right at 6:30am. I really like to have a cup of coffee before my day starts. I was not meeting Ken and Jama until 7:30.
This gave me enough time to snuggle on the couch with my coffee, stretch, roll, get dressed and get my water bottles filled.
MY RUNNING ESSENTIALS ON A LONG TRAIL RUN.
I am learning from my Monday running crew to have a running essentials box. Mine is still in the form of a bag.

• Bug spray
• Salt tabs
• Body Wipes
• Nutrition (granola bars, chews)
• chap stick
• towel
• Extra clothing
• Gum
• flip flops
• extra hand held water
• Mortin
• Body Spray...Cause you stinky!
• band aids

Andy decided to join me and the rest of the crew this morning. He was dragging getting out of bed.

THE PLAN:

HOLDRIGE TRAILS

West Loop with Jama, Ken and Andy, adding the Lakeshore loop and Tech loop. 

Then add the East loop for another 9.5 miles.

Total miles 15.

The West loop went smooth, the rain held out. Somehow, I was leading the pack. Andy had me setting the pace. The rain stayed at bay making this a nice dry run.

Then things changed quite dramatically.

Ken headed home, Andy changed his mind and decided to run another 2 miles on the East loop with us.

It was still DRY.

The radar was not concealing we were going to get drenched.

After Andy turned back to head in we were still dry. We all laughed that it would be great to just let the skies open. Our sweat was dripping through our clothes, if we were going to be this wet, we would rather be wet from the rain.

It wasn't just a couple more miles after Andy left that we heard the thunder.

"Jama, was that thunder?"

Jama laughed "I think that sounded like bears!" We laughed.

The sky roared again.

We could hear the rain but it was just misting on us. Andy text me. "Might consider turning around. Storm coming."

We were at a catch 22. It was just about the same distance either way.

The misty rain changed faces into a very consistent shower.

Something was magical about the rain in the woods. It really was amazing. The back country was illuminated. The greens glowed. The leaves dripped with droplets. The grasses danced around us with frogs and crittters. It was like we were in a fairytale. It was lovely.

The sky never got wicked.
The only thing that got wicked were the black flies. The harder it rained the more the bugs attacked. We both had full swarms over our head. They were like Super Flies. It was awful.

And the MOST AMAZING part...With me leading...We never got lost!! Thankfully I had Jama to help navigate me through the woods that I have ran now over a half a dozen times and still get confused in.

RUNDOWN:
Distance: 15 miles
Time: 12:34

Now, heading to bed to do it all again in the morning at Pontiac Lake.

Anita