I woke up this morning to thunder, lightning, and pouring rain. I hopped online, looked on local TV stations, etc. to see if there was any cancellation notice about the Toad Suck 10K/5K. Nothing. I studied the weather radar about every 5 minutes; the storms were just going to keep on coming. I didn’t think there was any way they could have the race today. But I thought I’d drive over there just to be sure, then go to the sports center and run inside. I was expecting a mostly empty parking lot.
Boy, was I wrong! It was swarming with people! I parked and made my way to the fieldhouse, hoping to hear some notice of a postponement. But there was none. By starting time, it was raining a “Noah line ’em up” rain and even lightning. I really thought they had to cancel a race because of lightning. But apparently not. So there I was in the fieldhouse with those who were debating whether or not to go for it, and those insane hard-core runner types were outside, and off they went. I turned in my timing chip and left (along with many other people, I might add), forfeiting my 20 dollars. I’m pretty cheap, but I was not about to put myself through that because of losing 20 dollars.
I couldn’t really see how many runners there were from inside, so I figured it was just those super-competitive people who travel around doing these things and who were running for a prize. I went to the sports center, ran my 3.1 miles (along with a few other Toad Suck racers who wanted to stay dry), and felt 100% satisfied with my decision. Ok, maybe 99%.
It was my first race, and I really want my first race to be a success, and I thought if I got out there it would be a sure failure. I’ve never run in the rain before. And this was no little sprinkle; this was an extremely heavy downpour. You’re not supposed to try anything new on race day (new shoes, new clothes, eating something for breakfast you don’t normally eat, etc.), and running in that kind of rain would have been a HUGE new thing. I didn’t have any idea what it would be like. I didn’t have appropriate clothing. I could get struck by lightning. So I did the right thing, right?
Then I saw the results posted this afternoon. I was astonished at just how many people actually ran in that storm! I don’t know what percentage exactly, but it looks like well over half. I mean, SEVERAL HUNDRED people thought this was a good idea. That puts me in the minority. I, who thought I had made a very sensible decision, was apparently, in the eyes of most of the runners there, a big weenie.
So who was right? Are that many people really that crazy, or am I that much of a wimp?
I guess the question it came down to was this: Is it worth it? If I had to run through that kind of storm for a purpose, I could do it. If it were to save my child, or get away from a serial killer, or something along those lines, then of course I would do it without a second thought. But was it worth it just for the sake of running? I don’t think so. I was doing this for fun, and that definitely would not have been fun.
[UPDATE: Ok, it may not be as bad as it first seemed. I was looking at registrants vs. participants; there were about 500 registered, and most of them (about 380) ran. But since registration is allowed on race day, there were probably lots of other people who would have come and registered that morning who had the good sense to stay home. As David pointed out, the number of participants this year was only about a third what it was last year.]
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