Sunday, September 2

So, we really wanted to post yesterday about all of our adventures but by the time we actually got home and dried off, we hit the hay!  Here's what happened:  we enjoyed a nice, leisurely Sunday.  You know, church, lunch, being lazy.  Then we decided to go kayaking at Philpott Lake, which was wonderful, yet tiring.  While kayaking, we also got to see a black bear swimming laps.  Just kidding, he just swam across the lake and ran into the woods.  Which is still impressive because he was just a little tiny cub!  That was the first bear either of us had seen in the wild ever!

And now, back to the running part of this blog.  After our relaxing Sunday, we had a little encounter with Leslie.  Tropical Storm Leslie, that is.  We both really wanted to run so when we got home from kayaking we changed into our running attire and headed outside to stretch.  We looked up at the sky and saw big, ominous, gray, scary, terrifying, threatening clouds.  Did that stop us?  Nah.  Should it have stopped us?  Abso-freaking-lutely.  Anyway, we took off our separate ways, and we were both enjoying the nice breezy weather.  Then it happened.  I, Mrs. Marathon, decided to turn around, cutting my route short, and right behind me was Leslie.  There was rain pouring down.  Literally right behind me.  Right where I needed to run to get home.  I had no choice, so I took off and kept running.  Right into the storm (yes, there was plenty of thunder and lightning too).  I knew that Mr. Marathon was aiming for his usual 6-mile loop, so I knew that I was closer to home.  I had no other option but to keep on running.  The roads and sidewalk quickly became flooded as I heard thunder rumbling despite wearing headphones playing music.  I saw huge flashes of lightning all around me as I tried to push all the way back home.  I finally made it (after 2.7 miles) and then grabbed my keys to venture out into the storm to find Mr. Marathon.  I drove his usual route, looking carefully the whole way along both sides of the road.  Finally, I found him waiting at about mile 2.9 under a small overhang that covered the porch of a building.  Turns out, the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning caught him, as well, right before he could reach his turn-around point.  Fortunately, I was able to find him and we both made it home safely.  Will we listen to the weather forecast better in the future?  Probably not.  Should we?  Probably so.  Maybe we will take a 50% chance of thunderstorms a little more seriously.  Or maybe not.