rain

I'll admit, it was incredibly tempting to skip practice tonight.  But I had promised myself that I would not miss another Tuesday night practice!  I argued with myself the whole way there - it was raining although not terribly cold (thank goodness!)  I only really started feeling good again in the last few days - that flu is nasty and holds on hard.  Was I being stupid?  Running in the rain?  And then, as I decided not to get on the first super packed 96th Street crosstown bus and wait for the next one, I started worrying.  One of my running buddies called to say that she wasn't go to make it.  Would anyone else be there?  And then, when the next bus came, it was super packed as well and I realized that 96th Street was actually closed and the bus was going to have to go up and around the top of Central Park.  It was about 6:15 - should have been fine.  Practice starts at 6:40.  But noooooo - the traffic was terrible and to make it worse, we got to East 106th Street and the bus turns to go east!  Nooooo!  I got off at 106th and Madison at 6:35pm.  Urban Athletics, our meeting place, is at 92nd and Madison!  

So I hoofed it downtown - wondering all the way if A.) anyone would still be there - and 2.) if anyone showed up in the first place!  Well, the answers were yes and yes.  So I dropped my bag, found my buddy, Amy, and we headed over to the park with our other running buddy Whitney. And then we ran hills in the rain.  102nd Street on the west side up to 105th and back.  In the rain.  Yuck.  Did I mention the rain?

But here's the kicker - middle of my third recovery I turn my right ankle on one of these:

Stupid prickly things.  Luckily, Amy catches me.  I sit out 1/2 a hill and do some ankle rolls.  It's fine now, but seriously?  Tripping on a prickly tree dropping? Just ridiculous.

So I did 5 1/2 hill repeats.  A little wussy for my intermediate status, but the whole run was about 5 miles and I felt pretty good considering how sore I have been since my 16 mile run.

And I can't wait for my first Wednesday run in more than 3 weeks!  Hopefully it won't be raining.  I can safely say I have experienced rain running and know how it would feel if, by some chance, it were to rain during the Paris Marathon.  I don't need to do it again.  Really.