Fool In The Rain

Timothy Egan, a New York Times correspondent for the Pacific Northwest, once wrote a book called “The Good Rain.” I haven’t read much of it, but hope to some day. I understand it’s a conservation expose of some sort on the Northwest.

I just love the title. I may have written about it before, but I always think of it when the rain is good. It rains a lot here. Probably not in total cubic inches, and the rain doesn’t fall with the violence you see in other places, like Virginia or the midwest. That is a sight--the real thunderbursts. Thunder and lightning are rare here. But gray skies, they last from about October to April, with 45 degrees and mist being the norm.

I went running today, around Blanchard Mountain, two loops. A fool in the rain, on a real misty mountain hop. It rained, and rained, and rained. The good rain…not too hard, not too cold, thank you. I pulled out my  portable slicker for the second lap, and that really warmed me up. I am pleased that I launched off into that  second lap—sometimes the hardest part is the first few steps, but I got it going. The second climb up Kill Bill had me breathing hard.

I ran with a Nathan belt with two holsters. I’m seeking opinions on equipment for 50+ mile distances. In my longer ones, I tend to rotate belts, packs, and handhelds, so as not to make things too tough on any one set of muscles. The belt though is a little bouncy and tight on the lower abdomen.

I had a good week of running, with a midday track workout up at WWU, and a Bikram session on Friday night. Good times, bad times, but I'm out there. I am officially horrible at yoga. I cannot pull up on my heels...no, correction--I cannot reach my heels, or touch my toes, and my hip and left hamstring fight me the whole time. I fall sideways and hop. My toenails get a lot more scrutiny than usual, and the reports are not good. I hide behind a pole in the back of the room and drip a lot of sweat. It's good stuff.

Next week is the Orcas 50k, and there is a whole lotta love and excitement in the air. It’s going to be great—I’m looking forward to stepping on to that ferry, and getting over the hills and far away. Orcas totally gives me no quarter every time, but it is a great early year wakeup call.

This month is computer lab for me. First Facebook, now Twitter. There’s so much buzz about Twitter—I had to check it out. I understand it’s possible to “follow”, without tweeting, and so that pushed me into the pool, with so many things going on in the tweet world. If it’s cool, I’ll probably have a couple addresses, but for now, I’m @scottyrailton. I really went out on a limb with the name.

Ramble on…

Samish Island

Lilly Lake