Dehumidifier Working Overtime

Wow, what a weekend for our state! We. Got. Soaked. Our basement stayed dry, however, so that's more than a lot of people around here can say.

My training plans got jumbled, to say the least. On Saturday I wanted to run, but I also wanted to do yard work. After considering the weather reports, I decided that the yard work should get done first. It was completed with about 30 minutes to spare before the first wave (of many) of storms came through. It then continued to rain on and off (mostly on) through last night.

Ellie's last 20 miler got cut short by rain, also. Yesterday afternoon the radar looked relatively clear for our area of Wisconsin, so she headed West on a local paved trail to begin her 20 miler. About 5 miles into it, I drove out to see how she was doing, and she was a bit freaked. I can't blame her, though, as the sky she was running in the direction of looked like some kind of computer animated sky from a science fiction movie. As she ran West, she had the wind at her back, and the clouds were moving North, so I told her I thought she was going to be okay. She was only planning on running that direction for about 6 miles before turning around.

So she continued West and I headed back East, parked the car about 5 miles away, and started running back towards her with water and gatorade. As I was running West, I started with the wind at my back, and about 20 minutes into my run, I was suddenly running into a stronger wind. I stopped, looked at those same very ominous clouds, and realized that they were no longer heading North, but instead were coming right at me. And fast. Uh oh.

At this point I was freaking out. Ellie was about 2 miles West of me, the pitch black clouds were almost over me, and my car was about 1.5 miles East of me. An impromptu speed workout followed as I hauled my butt as fast as I could back to my car so I could go get Ellie. The trail Ellie and I were running on runs parallel to a major highway, and I could only imagine what the drivers were thinking, watching me in an all out sprint away from what looked like the Armageddon, lightning and all.

I eventually reached my car and was speeding back towards Ellie. Amazingly, when I found her, it wasn't even raining and she was smiling. She had also noticed the change in wind direction and was a bit cautious, but we decided that I'd drive ahead and park and wait, in case it did start raining. So, off she went again (what a trooper!) and I hopped in the car and pulled onto the highway. And then it started raining. And then it started pouring.

Instead of a 20 miler, Ellie got in about 10. But when she reached the car, she was drenched and smiling. She shrugged her shoulders and hopped in. Again, what a trooper! She said despite the extreme humidity, she felt great, so that's a plus going into this week. I had hoped to get in about 15 miles this weekend to bring my week's total to 50, but I had to settle for 6. I can't complain, though, as other activities in Wisconsin were severely affected by the weather:

Road America had motorcycle races this weekend. All of the cycle enthusiasts that traveled to our area for the races got pummelled. Not much fun.

In the Southern Kettles the Kettle 100 was held this weekend. Between the mosquitos, 90 degree temps early Saturday, and the Tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms Saturday afternoon and night, it had to have been an epic adventure. 123 people were scheduled to start the 100 miler, and I believe something like 37 finished. Wow. You can read some more race reports on that by clicking this link.

This week I head back up to Stevens Point for another seminar, and on Sunday I'm going to run the Green Circle Trail, a 24 mile loop around the city. Should be fun!