Thirteen soggy miles

This past Tuesday, I did something I've never done before: went for a run in the pouring rain. It was a strange experience. I've run in cold weather and boiling sunshine and light showers, but never in constant, monotonous rain like that. At first, it was pretty amusing. People gawped at me in cars and chuckled from under their coat hoods as I raced past, ignoring the cold water pelting my face. But it soon began to wear me down.

Two and a half hours in the cold downpour. Not my finest moment.

After the first hour, it stopped feeling so funny. I started to feel cold. I zipped up my light raincoat and kept going. My hood kept blowing off or obstructing my vision, so I ignored it and carried on without. Halfway through the second hour, I had to ease back on the pace more often and that's when I started to feel genuinely miserable for the first time ever. I've never felt that way while running before. Even if I force myself to get out there and go, my spirits have always picked up as the miles begin to tick by. The feeling of unrelenting misery; of running beneath endless dull, grey clouds; of racing through constant, unceasing rain was thoroughly unpleasant. The worst part about this is that the cold and damp seeped into my clothes and left my joints feeling more achy and pained than usual the day after. It seems that wet knees require even more love and attention than usual.

I wanted to try and hit fifteen miles again, or - even better - to reach a new personal best, but the rain and the cold worked together to dampen my mood and totally throw me off my game. At thirteen miles, I called it a day. Hey, at least I know that if it rains on 28th April, I can still run half the marathon.

Like these poor people. I don't know what's more disheartening - running in it, or trying to cheer people on from the side.

In other news, my fundraising has finally crossed the halfway mark! This is utterly incredible! Thank you to everyone who has chipped in so far. We've still got a long way to go, but there's plenty of time.

Look at that! Amazing.

As for me, I'm planning another run today, but those heavy clouds are slowly rolling back into place above me. I'm trying to steel myself for another inevitably damp and disheartening session...