Rain is an interesting thing. It's extremely necessary and important to our sustenance but most people (though not all people) get so annoyed and even depressed by it. How do I personally feel about rain? Let's just say I have a love/hate relationship with it. Let me give two rain experiences I had recently that evoked different emotions from me.
Rain Experience 1: Rain is my enemy
I had planned the camping trip a few months prior. Now, it was time to go. I was so stoked. First, I love camping. Second, I love camping with my wife. Third, I loved being able to introduce my daughter to camping for the first time. Fourth, the camping trip was a great opportunity to hang out with the adult leaders and student leaders from our youth ministry. Everything about this camping trip shouted "love." We made it up there set up camp and had a great Thursday night. Friday was awesome as well. We had a great session in the morning, went for a hike, swam to some little island and just had a great day of bonding. Everything was going according to plan.
Then, just as I was building the fire for dinner Friday night, the skies opened up and the down-pouring onslaught of rain began. This is when hate was introduced into the camping trip. Why? Because I hate rain while camping. And unfortunately for Polly and me, it typically rains at least once during our camping trips. While dinner was ruined, we did salvage the night with some pizza and card games in the tent. As it turned out, it was also great bonding time! Maybe the rain wasn't so bad after all, right? Wrong. I was not done being annoyed.
Rain during camping has everything to do with timing. I'm not talking about time of day like how it ruined dinner (though that did annoy me). I am talking about when it rains in relation to when you need to pack up and leave. In this particular case, it was not favorable. Everything was soaked when we packed up to leave. We had to re-pitch our tent and let everything dry out when we got home. It wasn't the end of the world, but it was still annoying. Rain was not my friend that weekend.
Rain Experience 2: Rain is my friend
A couple of weeks ago, I was up in 1000 Islands in upstate New York for vacation. You may already be wondering how vacation and rain being my friend can go together. Just hear me out and it should make sense. It rained a few days during the week. Like camping, this proved to be good bonding time. Unlike camping, however, the rain never ruined dinner and we didn't have to pack up wet things. In and of itself, this would typically leave me indifferent about the rain. And for the majority of the week that's exactly how I felt...indifferent. But there was one rain storm that brought me to that place of actually loving it.
As you most likely know (and as the name and purpose of this blog even attests to), I am a runner. I love to run. And if you read any of my blogs that I wrote looking back at my vacation, you know that I ran on 4 separate occasions for a total of 20.2 miles. One morning, it was raining (drizzling to begin and a good, steady rain to end) when I went for my run. I was in my "happy place." I love running in the rain. I don't know if it's the cool feel of the rain, the lack of humidity, the change from monotony, the reminder of God's sovereignty, the rain's calming/relaxing nature, or a combination of these things and more (most likely), but I really do love running in the rain.
Some people turn to the lame, boring treadmill when they look outside and see the rain. I try to lace my shoes as fast as I can so I don't run the risk of missing the rain during my run. Last year, during a 20 mile run while in marathon training, it rained the entire time. I even stepped into a big puddle (not my favorite, but not a big deal either). That run was the easiest (and dare I say best) long run I have ever had. I enjoyed the run from start to finish.
So, that's my love-hate relationship with rain. When it's camping I hate it. When I'm running I love it. If you're one of those people who hits the treadmill you see a drop of water fall from the sky, I want to encourage you to give running in the rain a try next time. You might even end up loving it as much as I do!
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