The weather this morning in Pittsburgh was atrocious. I woke to the sound of heavy rain.  Knowing that I had my long run to do, I checked the weather app on my phone.  It was forecasted to rain all day.

Fortunately, even though it was wet, the temperature outside, was not too bad for the end of February.  It was in the high 40’s ‘F.  This meant that doing my run outside was going to be fine.

Whenever I know that I am going to be running outside in the rain, I do a couple of things to help make it a little more pleasant.  I focus on avoiding chafing and trying to stay reasonably dry.

I have found that the best thing to do to avoid chafing, is to wear my triathlon kit.  My kit is form fitting and so doesn’t rub easily.  It is also designed to get wet. If you think about it, triathlon kits are worn while swimming.  The materials in the kit used are specifically chosen because they do not retain water and they dry very quickly.

Next, I typically wear a light weight, waterproof running jacket.  The jacket keeps me dry to a large extent, which in turn lets me keep my body warm.  I also wore gloves today.  My hands get cold easily, so gloves are essential this time of year. If I run in the rain in summer, I skip the gloves, but still usually wear the light jacket (unless it’s really hot).

Finally, I run in a baseball or trucker cap.  I use this to keep water off my face and out of my eyes.  There is usually a constant drip of water falling off the peak of the cap, but I find that I can ignore this after a short distance.

Dressed like this, I actually enjoy running in the rain.  The park where I run is much quieter in the rain.  That was the case today. I only saw two other runners, while doing my 95 minute run.  The run went well, even with the 4 x 1 minute intensity intervals at the end.  In fact, it was nice to open up the legs and run fast.  I have been running slow for most of the year; runner faster feels good!