...well, thunder, lightening and hailstones really but you get the drift!
As you may know, I'm a fair weather runner and if it looks iffy I'll retire to the hamster wheel but I really wanted to run outside tonight, now that it's warmer in the garage I get so hot and sweaty and it's sooo boring. A massive rainstorm had come over earlier but then the sun came out and I thought I'd chance it. I had my lovely new Karrimor to protect me if I got caught. I fired up Zombies Run and set off. When I reached the point where I could either head left and just run round the roads or head right and round the reservoir, I cast a quick look skywards decided it was safe and headed towards the water. It was lovely, birds swooping all around, presumably hovering up the midges that I hadn't already eaten and ducks and sailing boats bobbing on the lake. Bliss.
I was nearly round and about 1k from home when a massive grey cloud appeared out of nowhere and then, the stuff of my nightmares, a bolt of lightening and a massive clap of thunder, just across the water. I am terrified of being caught outside in a storm, I've even been known to sit in the car when we were camping because somebody told me that was the safest place to be on account of the rubber tyres. Now I'm out in the open and the last km back to civilisation involves running past lots of trees. I think I did the fastest km ever, my lungs were burning and my thighs were screaming but there was no way I was stopping until I hit the road! Then the hailstones started. On the plus side, my new jacket is waterproof, I would have been bone dry if I hadn't been sweating like I'd never sweated before - I think it was a combination of fear and effort.
So, with the 3 lots of Zombies I had to avoid and then a final push to escape the storm, my 5k of interval training tonight resulted in 2 minutes off my 5k time Every cloud...