ridin' the storm out

it's no secret that i've been slacking a little. uuuh, well, ok - alot. i'd kill to have the inner drive (or good fortune) of someone like wil. unfortunately, with family in town this past weekend and my kids' activities ramping up to full speed, it's becoming more and more challenging to find any reasonable time to run. but after contemplating wil, and her insane-o'clock morning runs and workouts, i decided that i needed to run - even if was at an unreasonable time.
last nite, after returning from andrew and nathan's soccer practice, eating dinner at a stupid-late hour, getting the kids showered and in bed, my wife came home from her class. we watched a movie and went to bed. it was almost midnight. as i got ready for bed, i proposed to myself two options:
1) run now, and don't get to bed until after 1:00, or
2) get up at insane-o'clock and run before work
either of these certainly qualifies as unreasonable. i chose option 1. i knew that there was absolutely no possible way that i would have gotten up to run when my alarm rang at 4:30 (sorry wil!) so i got dressed and went out. when i got outside and felt the stiff it's-going-to-pour-rain-at-any-moment wind in my face, i remembered the less than encouraging weather forecast, which called for heavy thunderstorms throughout the nite. hmmm. screw it. i ran anyway. now i hadn't really thought about how far i was going to go. i just headed toward state line road (which really is the border between indiana and illinois) and figured i'd make a decision then. i got to state line road and made a left. making a left there means that i'm going to do a particular loop, which happens to run for exactly 6.2 miles. a built in 10k - how cool! i hadn't really planned on running that long, but i felt pretty good, so i just kept going. the end of state line road represents approximately halfway, and is also the furthest point from home on the loop. i was still feeling good. here's the splits:
mile 1 (flat): 8:45 - uncomfortable, as usual.
mile 2 (flat): 8:30 - getting into a rhythm. noticing ominous rumbling somewhere far off...
mile 3 (2 big uphills, 1 big downhill): 10:15 - hitting "cruise control". rumbling getting much louder.
now, as amy has so eloquently stated, if there is any possibility of getting rained or dumped on, it will happen when you are furthest from home. and that's exactly what happened. the skies opened up and punished me worse than a boy attempting to escape from neverland. and the LIGHTNING! wow! eek! duck! then wind!
i started running faster, to try to get to the wooded area of the course, about a mile further.
i've gotta go now. we have cows!
fortunately, it settled down quickly. by the time i reached the end of mile four, the lightning subsided, the wind died down, and the rain was now a rather pleasant light shower. the rest of the run was quite enjoyable, and i'm glad i chose to do the full 6.2 miles. here's the rest of the run splits:
mile 4 (constant slight downhill): 7:55 - it's amazing how fast you can run when in a massive lightning storm and YOU are the tallest thing around!!!
mile 5 (small downhill, small uphill): 10:30 - paying for mile 4.
mile 6 (all uphill): 10:35
total time for the 6.2: 58:30.
not bad, i guess, for a relatively hilly and stormy 10k. i'm not sure if my shoes will ever dry out, though!