Rain - *%!$

Saturday afternoon and it's been raining most of the day here in Tucson. Dropped my parents off at the airport early in the morning, then hit the Cracker Barrel for a stack of pancakes before heading down to Tucson. Driving into Tucson I could see the rain moving in. I went straight to the Marathon Expo to pick up my packet and check out the swag. As I was leaving a light sprinkling of rain was starting. Since I wanted to get in a 2-mile jog to loosen up, I headed over to the finish line, changed in the car, and started jogging back along the marathon course. The light sprinkle of rain was becoming more consistent. When I turned around at about 1 mile to head back to the finish line I realized there was also a bit of a stiff breeze. I was now running into a headwind, in a light rain -- and I was cold. This was not supposed to be.

I have had very good luck regarding weather and my training. Extraordinary luck actually. In 18 weeks of preparation, maybe twice I had to run outside in a very light drizzle, and only once in a steady rain. Even when I went to Seattle and Vancouver for a week, every day I was scheduled to run, the weather was great; then it would rain on my days off! My sister Beth in Seattle said,"You know what that means, don't you? You're going to have perfect weather up until the marathon, then it's going to rain on the day of the race."

The week before the race I began watching the weather for Tucson. I didn't like what I saw. Sunny, sunny, sunny, sunny, rain, sunny, sunny, ... Yeah, rain on Sunday. But on Friday, the prediction changed to partly cloudy through the weekend. I was feeling a lot better about this.

And here it is on Saturday and it's raining. All day long. Since it is Tucson, I went with my in-laws to Eegee's for lunch.

Then I realize I forgot to bring my running gloves. You know the ones. That old dirty pair I've been running in for a couple years, wiping snot on them on those cold morning runs. The ones you wear for the beginning of the race, then throw away at one of the early water stations after you don't need them anymore. Wish I had picked up a pair at the Expo, they were only $2. But now I'm driving around Tucson to all the running stores, and all they sell are $5 to $15 (plus) running gloves. No way. Backup plan -- I've got an old pair of socks that I ran in this morning. They'll work.

I'm spending the night at my sister-in-laws house since she's doing the half marathon and we'll drive out together. After a light pasta dinner, I get my stuff ready to go in the morning. It will be an early morning. We've got to get to the buses around 5:00am and I'll have to drop her off at the half marathon pickup area, then go park at the marathon pickup area for my bus. The weather forecast for Sunday says clearing in the early morning, then rain developing later in the day. There is hope. I get a pretty good night's sleep. I'm glad I couldn't hear the raindrops still falling into the night.