"There are no rainy days"

Do you remember the AmEx commercial? The one where it’s raining outside, you see inside an empty house and you hear Tiger Woods in the background commenting “A rainy day is my chance to be home; be a fan; be a kid; be lazy…problem is, there are no rainy days.” Then the camera cuts to a shot of Tiger practicing golf shots in the rain.

That was all I could think about on my run in the thunder and rain this afternoon. A year ago, I probably would’ve skipped it. I was hungry from having an early lunch, exhausted from a long day of work, eager to just sit back in preparation for a relaxing weekend. But for whatever reason, I thought of that Tiger commercial as I was changing out of my work clothes and just had to go.

It actually wasn’t bad once I got started. For one thing, it was much cooler than it has been for days. Secondly, there was hardly a soul in Central Park, which during the evening rush, is usually jammed pack with runners, bikers and cars fighting for the same six inches of road. Finally, at the very least, it was good practice for races. After all, there’s no guarantee that it won’t rain on marathon day. (Just ask the poor souls who ran Boston this year during the Northeastern!) Once I got adjusted to running at a comfortable pace, the rain really didn’t bother me that much. I was able to maintain a good 7:05 min/mile pace throughout the six miles without even looking at the watch. By the end of the 43 minutes, the rain even stopped and gave way to a nice dusky breeze. Calculating my miles and splits on my way home, I actually felt better about my running than I had for weeks.

Tiger’s right. There really are no rainy days…there’re just running days with a bit of extra precipitation!