The weather hasn't been so good for the last few days, what with the constant stream of rain, and it's looking pretty miserable for tomorrow's race. That's certainly a drag.
The Weather Network has a 7-day forecast that I have been watching intently since last weekend. The weather is notoriously hard to predict in this area and the forecasts are wrong as often as not. It's hard enough coming up with an accurate short-term forecast, so when I saw rain for the 22nd the week before (ie, the tail end of the 7-day forecast), that pretty much told me that I could look forward to sun. As the week progressed, the forecast for the 22nd continued to change and at one point, they were predicting sun and good temperatures for both Saturday and Sunday. Alas, that was not to be.
Heavy rain started near the end of the week (and I mean heavy). The forecast for Sunday changed again around Thursday - lots of rain, relatively cold temperatures, lots of wind. It remained the same on Friday and here it is on Saturday and the forecast for tomorrow hasn't changed.
Oddly enough, it's been quite nice today. No real sunny breaks, but no rain, not a lot of wind, etc. Given the forecast for tomorrow, the race should have been bumped up to today.
So how are things looking for tomorrow? 50mm of rain, winds of 40km/h, and single digit temperates. How lovely.
With that kind of weather, what to wear for race day becomes very important. If it was going to be nice, my running shirt and shorts would be sufficient. If it was going to be cold/windy and not raining, my sweat pants and a sweater would be fine. However, the rain adds a whole new dimension. The sweater and sweat pants would be ok, except for the fact that they will hold a lot of water, making the run even more difficult, especially with all of that wind. If I don't dress warmly, though, hypothermia will be a real problem. I decided that I needed to buy some appropriate clothing.
Half an hour later, I'm back at the Running Room. They had all kinds of great water-resistant windbreaker like jackets. I did some research on the website before I headed down and had two potential jackets picked out - the SOHO jacket and the Unisex Reflective jacket (some sort of Running Room-branded jacket). From my research, I preferred the Unisex, but the cheapskate in me had me leaning towards the SOHO (hey, $15 is $15!).
Once I got to the store and really looked at the two jackets, I opted for the Unisex. I liked the look, feel, and features of the jacket better. There were lots of colours to choose from (although I would have to go to the expo booth to find a blue or red one) and although I'm historically into drab and dark colours, I figured I'd spice things up a bit. I hummed and hawed between the yellow (listed as gold on the site) and bright green and decided that yellow was the way to go. So add another $80 to my equipment total. :)
One of the nifty things about the jacket are the zippers that run along the sleeves and down the sides of the jacket, which serve as vents. I won't be needing those tomorrow, but I'm sure they'll have some use in the future. I was wearing the jacket around the store and noticed that sometimes the zipper would rub up against the underside of my arm. I immediately recognized that as a source for chafing, especially on a long run, and the short-sleeved running shirt that I already have left some of my bare arm exposed to the zipper. I'm sure you can guess where this is going... $50 later, I found a long-sleeved mesh shirt (very similar to my short-sleeved one).
Now that I've got my new shirt and jacket, I'm all set for tomorrow. I tend to generate a lot of heat while I'm running, so I think I'll be fine if I wear my shorts only (ie, no sweat pants).
And so I wait....
- Mike
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