The Angels Are Crying (Again!)

Once again a last-minute forecast check and reality did not align this morning as I hosted another training run. This time the rain proved a real problem since we were running all trails.

I had a backup road course, but a group vote in drizzle affirmed the original plan to run along the main trail through Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve. The rain stopped just long enough for a group photo at the trail entrance and then I ran up ahead to get photos of everyone coming through a particularly photogenic spot ... and my camera would not turn on. That bode ill for the remainder of the morning.

The plan was that everyone would turn around if the rain became more intense, which the rain did. But it's difficult to gauge rain pressure when you are running and so no one came back for an hour, and then folks trickled in (no pun intended), seeking a way to get the mud off their shoes. Before everyone returned, the park ranger came by to place a sign warning everyone to stay out; the trails were officially closed.

Our support group promised to stick around for 2 hours, which under more pleasant conditions would allow the majority of folks to run to the Sorrento Valley end and back. It took some folks longer and at least one woman who intended to stay out there 30 minutes beyond our alloted time remained when I hurried up the road to make a breakfast meeting. Her husband waited for her or else I would have stayed to make sure she was OK.

This is a hardy group, many of whom remembered that, yes, I'm the one that organized the last run where it rained and rained the entire time. But those who run trails know there is a coda that you can only appreciate once you've embraced any adversity nature might throw at you. I could tell that the 35 brave souls who weathered the wetness and the shoe-sucking mud had learned a little more about themselves today, which despite the inclement weather, meant the run ended on a good note.