My favourite weather to run in....

My favourite weather to run in.....

I routinely see this one pin on Pinterest about running in the rain being everything, shower, exercise and therapy. Most days I get out hitting the pavement for the run itself because I love it but every so often I just need that run. That was Monday's run. With everything going on it had gotten a bit crazy and after a tedious series of meetings as I walked back to the office I thought screw it, I need the run.

Sure, it had rained earlier and was probably going to again but that worked just fine for me. All in all it was 10k of awesomeness, steady, moderately heavy rain mixed in with some wind and virtually no one on the trail. The trail during the week is largely the Rideau Canal trail:

and because of the rain, it was pretty much empty. No pedestrians walking four abreast (!); no cyclists ( you guys are pretty much alright); no dog walkers with 60 foot leashes. There were some folks out but they all seemed pretty like-minded. By the time I got back, I was drenched and felt refreshed. It was exactly what I needed to ground myself and get back to work. You see, this month has been absolutely insane for us. We started a basement reno ( more on that later ), our oldest dog came up lame on her hind legs one morning and we went through the wringer fearing the worst ( she's since come right back to her oldself ), then everyone in the house caught the flu I mentioned earlier; got slammed at work and; to top it all off, I probably missed almost 10 days of work due to our daughters condition which causes us to loss immense amounts of sleep ( my wife unfortunately more than me ) and creates a lot of stress for us. So, its been a month right up there with last Christmas where we went to Dominican Republic for a week of fun and spent it with just about the worst flu ever that we didn't recover from until about February.

So, when I saw this perfect mix of warm, heavy rain I jumped at it.It clears out the paths of most folks; avoids any unsightly sweat stains on your clothes and; gives you a natural wash. It's a fantastic stress release and this probably my favourite run of the year. It beats out the accidental half marathon around Dawes Lake when I got lost; it beats out the yasso's and fast 5k's. It ranks up there for sure with my runs with my daughter in the Chariot. Maybe it doesn beat those runs but it was great. Run's in weather like that, those are among my favourites.