Forecast: rainy, windy and cranky

I was sure winter would be over by now. In many places rain is a sign of spring and growth and birth and blah blah. Here it's a sign of, well, rain. Those of us who look forward to getting over our Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) assume the Bay Area's weather will be mostly clear and dry from March until late fall or winter. We know the fog we get only lasts a couple of days. But this rain in April stuff? Unnatural. Makes me want to hibernate. Or yell at someone.

I had a great 18 mile run on Saturday, before this latest storm hit. Anita, Bree and I met up again in Lafayette to run on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail (which has become my go-to place for long runs) (and short runs). Since she's coming back from a bit of a layoff, Bree only ran about 1-1/2 miles with us. Anita and I continue to almost the end of the trail, about 7.2 miles, then turned around and ran back to mile 1, looped back to 3 and ran it on in. We started slowly, finished slowly, and ran slowly in the middle.

The weather on Saturday was cool and overcast and very windy. It was the swirly type of wind which meant whichever way we ran, we had a headwind. A couple of miles we managed a small tail wind or cross wind, which was nice. There were a few sprinkles but not enough to get us drenched or frozen. Actually not a bad day to run, notwithstanding the high pollen counts.

I'm concerned about my speed. Rather, I'm concern about the lack thereof. I truly don't mind going slowly, being slow, taking so long. But there's a 6 hour cut-off for my next marathon and I'm currently running slowly enough that it's going to be very very close. Even if I'm able to (1) maintain a consistent speed and (2) not stop at a bathroom, I'm going to be right at the wire. I have 2 more long runs and a bunch of short ones before then so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But with a hilly course I might be doomed. Ok, that's a bit dramatic. I might not make the cutoff, which would annoy me terribly.

I spent the rest of Saturday with my mom (and managed to stay awake the entire time) and that gave me Sunday to spend by myself, for myself. I love those days which I can take my time doing whatever I want, as long as I know I complete the tasks that must be completed. I cleaned my house, did many tubs of laundry, waited hours and hours for my laundry to dry (I really need a new washer and dryer), read, napped and knit. Really, how perfect is that?