It can always suck more...

Over the last 60 hours I have run 77 miles...mostly in a cold rain.  Honestly, it sucked.  But as far as pegging the "Suck-O-Meter" goes, running in rain pales in comparision to a lot of things I can think of.  I could be in a tent, in the middle of Afghanistan...or, in a wheel chair nursing a battle injury.  I gritted it out thinking to myself that there are tens of thousand US troops who would trade places with me in second.  "Shut the (insert favorite expletive here) up Ed...keep running you pansie!  Toughen up!"  Perspective resets the mind and helps tell you what sucks and what REALLY SUCKS.

Two weeks ago, I found myself in a plane (10,000 miles in 5 days...really) 35,000 feet over East Cowpattie, Oklahoma complaining to myself because the plane's WiFi kept dropping and I could not surf the web, Skype friends/workmates or catch up on email.  Really Ed?  You are making your second trip back and forth in a week from the West Coast to the East Coast.  You are strapped in a chair 35,000 feet in the air, with a computer that is more powerful than all computers on the planet 35 years ago in your lap, accessing the Internet...and you are complaining to yourself about how bad it sucks that the connection was flaky.   What is wrong with me?  It can always suck more than that!!!

Anyways, back to running in the wet and cold.  I think I have found the perfect cure.  Next time it dips below 50 degrees and has a little bit of moisture...I am going out running like this!

I have done some crazy stuff persuing my hobby.  Rapelling down a dark mountain at 2 in the morning listening to others swear a blue streak below me or above me as they banged into the mountain side....deciding to run on people's yards this past Ironman because I was thinking that if I passed out with heat stroke that it would be better to collapse on grass...inhaling beef jerky into my left lung during a 100 mile bike ride that turned competitive and developing a 104 degree temperature due to infection...

I would do them all again...

However, the one thing that makes me want to call for my mom and fuzzy blue blankie is running (biking, living) in wet cold weather!  I hate it. 

It truly sucks...but...it can always suck more....