23 November 2009 5k

I got more than I bargained for last night when I headed out for a little 5k before dinner. I had asked my husband whether it was raining - he had just returned from the market. Although he said no, I pulled on my winter coat, thinking I'd probably just end up carrying it.

Odie and I headed off down the beach. As I got to the 2.5k turn-around point, the wind started gusting to 80 knots, kicking up the surf high on the beach and it started to rain so hard I couldn't see. I leaned into the wind, unable to run, worried now about sneaker waves. I leashed up Odie to keep him out of the surf and cinched my hood, barely able to keep my eyes open in the blowing sand & rain.

All that was okay until the lightning. I had been running on the hard pack near the water. With the lightning, I no longer wanted to be the tallest thing on the beach. I hustled up to the fence line at the dunes, kept walking into the wind, while waiting for my neck hairs to stand on end so I could collapse to avoid a strike. I kept going, thinking it didn't make sense to lie in a hole and that no one was going to come get me anyway.

Well, my neck hairs stayed flat. The storm was moving so quickly that the next crack told me the business part of the storm was quite far away already. When I climbed the hill out of the dunes to the street, the wind stopped, but not the rain. My husband met me at the door with two towels.

I think that was my most frightening run ever. Maybe next time I will dig a hole to wait out the storm.