The Heavy Stuff...

With the exception of a couple of nasty mornings back in Jan/Feb most of our group runs have been blessed with fairly mild weather this year. That wasn't the case this past Saturday, however, when five of us ventured out into the pouring rain at Clayton. I have to admit that as I drove over to the park I really didn't expect that anyone would be willing to go out and run but I figured I would at least take the ride over and see who showed up. Well when I got there Butch and Linda were there waiting and Nate and Jenny pulled up just a couple of minutes behind me. So much for not running!

After getting our pre-run push ups out of the way in the rain, we headed straight into the trails hoping to seek some coverage beneath the trees. It wasn't to be though. We ran on into the muddy trails, hopping over puddles as we went, resigning ourselves to the fact that we were going to get wet and dirty. We headed down the Bridges Trail out towards Doctors' Creek and then headed up the Death Hill - just once this time though. At the top of the hill we stayed straight and ran around the back on Old Forge Trail, then hung a right and took the extra loop onto Doctor's Creek and stayed on that trail all the way out to the soybean field. At the field we hung a left and headed uphill, to the left, and then finally back out to the parking lot.

Along the way I kept thinking of the scene from Caddyshack where Carl Spackler tries to keep the game going despite the storm...

"I don't think the heavy stuff will come down for a while."
-Carl Spackler

One last thing I should mention about the run, and this I suppose is really more of a clarification on 1 of the 3 rules we have. As we always tell our new runners: 1) it's not a race, 2) nobody gets left behind, and 3) if you need to take a break to catch your breath or anything just ask. The clarification comes in on rule 3 and that is that nobody is allowed to call for a break on someone else's behalf. Like when someone whose name I won't mention said between huffs and puffs: "I think she needs a break..." Oh yeah, sure, she needed the break...riiiiiight! ;-)

Roll call: Bill Y., Butch, Jenny, Linda, Nate

L to R: Butch, Linda, Bill Y., Nate, Jenny