Mean Queen Irene

When even the Team in Training folks are not out and about on a Saturday morn, you know the weather must be bad. I'd planned to walk 14-15 miles today. I had one friend joining me for the walk, and a second joining us for the middle 7 miles. When I left my home at 5:55 to meet them, I already had a message, which I listened to as I parked at the meeting point 20 minutes later. It was my friend Debbie, who lives on the southside. Her message was that it was already raining steadily and pretty nasty, and she was not coming. As I listened to her message, the first drops hit my windshield, and within minutes, I was walking in a steady rain. I called Lelia, who was going to meet us at 7:00.

We agreed that it was not a good day for a walk. I decided to keep going until I reached Byrd Park where Team in Training links up every Saturday. In the six seasons I have trained with TNT, I can remember two cancelled trainings - back to back major snowstorms. A few others were shortened when thunderstorms rolled in. But when I got to Byrd Park after a mile or so of walking, it was deserted. I was soaked and had only seen two other runners the whole way. This is a sign to just go home, relax, and walk another day. And that is just what I did.

What a week in Virginia - a big earthquake on Tuesday, and now a hurricane. The earthquake shook my office building like a terrier shaking a rat, with us being the rat. Here in Richmond, we don't expect hurricane force winds, but we should get plenty of rain and some wind. I feel a bit like I wimped out, but I can always mix in some treadmill and eliptical miles later.