I’ve come to the conclusion that if you see someone running in the rain, they are either crazy or training for something. I, potentially, am both.

This morning was a balmy 45 degrees (shorts weather!). It was also a torrential downpour. I have made it my mission to have no excuses during training: not for cold weather, a lack of time in the day, or even for lots and lots of rain.

When I saw the downpour, I thought about just going to the gym, but I haven’t used a treadmill at all to train yet, and it was warm outside, so I just started running.

Everyone I passed was bundled up, toting umbrellas. I got a mixture of looks that ranged from sympathetic to questioning my sanity. And somehow that’s really motivating to me. I’m super competitive, so knowing that I was more hardcore than all these people walking to class gave me a great energy boost, and my first half mile was my fastest yet. I also felt like I had to prove my legitimacy to them, like hey, I’m a real runner who runs fast and in the rain and such.

Ten minutes into the run, the rain had let up into a drizzle. I jammed out to Taylor Swift’s “1989” and it ended up being a nice run; altogether cool and refreshing. See? I told you I might be crazy…