A Triumph of its Own

It finally happened. All day Saturday I looked out with dread at the weather. Sunday morning I woke up early for race day...and rain. The day had arrived when I had to decide whether I would have it in me to race in the rain.
So it's a good thing I've had some practise!
I picked up a friend early - the awesomest of friends who has been my ground crew at this race for the third year in a row. I don't think he knew what to do with himself now that I was running a 10k rather than a half marathon as I'd done the previous two years. What's this? Only a one hour wait instead of two?
As always before the race, strategies and race goals pawed through my head. After doing so well at Noosa - indeed, after holding myself back at Noosa out of fear of re-injury to my knee and getting my best 10k time in 3 years - I was confident I could do this.
But, oh! That rain! It was misery. Absolute, total misery. I even did a brief warm-up in my raincoat to avoid getting wet for as long as possible. But you see, this was my first mistake. As it was not just raining, but humid. I think I still have too much Canadian in me: I associate rain with cold, not hot.

As they called us out to the start line and I shed my excess layers to my friendly ground crew, I realized I was rather over-heated. I didn't have much chance to cool off before the gun went off. And by gun I mean someone yelling 'go!' into a microphone. I crossed the start line, and by start line I mean an uneven line of chalk someone had hastily scratched across the road that was already fading in sections from the rain.
I tried to keep up with some running friends - mistake. I felt the surge of the sprinting crowd (somewhat small as the rain had scared off the smart ones) and went with them. I was well within my goal of a pb for the first 3k before the internal struggle began. The rain - after doing a fine job of saturating me had mockingly left to leave humidity in it's wake. I stared at passing runners wearing plastic ponchos in shock. Seriously?
I gulped a few sips of water at the 3k water stop which, I later discovered, was the only water stop for the 10k runners, as we turned around earlier than the half marathoners. A second water stop taunted us 50m past the 10k turn around point (which, because of the loop we ran, was actually closer to the 7k mark). Cruelty! I refused to run an extra 100m just for a drink of water.
In the end I did run an extra 100m because the race was slightly longer than a regular 10k race. No, this is not a race known for it's professionalism!
I struggled, I was slow, and in the end I ran a pitiful time. I barely broke the 60-min mark (if you count only the 10k and not the extra 100m at the end). But I survived a race in the rain. Therein lies a small triumph all on its own.