UKC

I had a good 9-mile run this morning; the post-Reading-half-marathon resolve is still there. However, while I did not mind the rain that started at mile 8, I really did mind the large quantities of sharp pointy hailstones that showered down throughout mile 9! They hurt! And for some reason when I dripped in at the door the family was dancing around in fits of laughter...

I would like
(a) affirmation: tell me I was brave and valiant and persevering, please. And
(b) your much better stories of occasions when the weather did something surprising.

In reply to BusyLizzie:

hail and wind is the worst, half my face was numb and a few minor bleeds on my lip, just from my normal 7 miler a few weeks ago. It was about 2 degrees before windchill, I had a hat but I wished Id taken my buff to cover my face. However, I survived as did you and have a little tale to tell
Makes you feel like a proper man wot

In reply to BusyLizzie:

You were brave, valiant and persevering!

You are right, they hurt. The peaked cap I have (are you listening Montane?) that keeps the rain off my face does not keep the hail stones off my ears. At least hail storms tends to be short lived.

In reply to BusyLizzie:

Yes, you were brave, but it's worse on a bike because you're going faster!

I quite like being out in the elements, but once I'm back inside, dry and war, I never feel like going out again that day.

In reply to mbh:



You need the Nike Trilby.

In reply to BusyLizzie:
You were certainly brave and persevering. I would've quit. (PS your family are helpful, aren't they, "dancing around in fits of laughter"?!)

Surprising weather I've seen,
1. in the centre of a typhoon in the Far East, the eye passed right over, and the 26-floor building we were in was perceptibly shuddering (we were on the 26th floor. Later I knew they're supposed to do that in typhoons, it's a design feature).

2. in the middle of the monsoon in the himalayas, seeing a succession of enormous clouds coming up the valley at eye level.

3. during the monsoon in an Indian city, incredible, day turned to night and every street into a lake, never seen anything like it.

In reply to abseil:

Had hail in Chitwan last year. 42C in the shade, and lumps the size of quail eggs. Bonkers.

To Busy Lizzie:

I'm in the Peloponnese at the moment. Yesterday, there was a slight breeze and the whole island ran indoors. Does that count?

Mind, I was in the Pyrenees at Xmas, and the rain coming off the mountains blew all the overflows out. That was pretty spectacular.

In reply to BusyLizzie:

My last mountain marathon, the LAMM about 10 years ago, based by Loch Carron. On the first day we started in cold and cloudy weather, but by the middle of the day (in June by the way) it turned to full on winter with heavy wind driven snow, whilst we were crossing Maoile Lunndaidh. We were in lightweight running gear and I was very close to hypothermia. If my partner hadn't been there to help me put on my windproof, as I was shaking so much I couldn't do it myself, I probably would still be there, a bleached set of bones! We had to abandon that day for other reasons, but I think about 100 teams also abandoned due to the weather.

In reply to BusyLizzie:

Nine or ten posts in, and still no one has told you to MTFU. What's going on?

In reply to pamph:

Many years ago, I was taking part in the Four Inns, in the kind of conditions which would probably lead to legal actions these days.

We'd got as far as the Cat, I think, and had a serious conflab as a team about whether to go on. At that moment, the door of the checkpoint blew open and a figure, silhouetted in the doorway, lurched in and keeled over on his face. It was like watching a lamppost fall down.

So we put all the rest of our clothes on, and finished the race. These were the days before modern fleece, so mainly it meant heavy jumpers and Peter Storms. Half the teams dropped out, so our appallingly slow time still gave us quite a respectable position, IIRC. Magic times.

In reply to Submit to Gravity:

I thought about that, but the Asics Sombrero looks better.

In reply to BusyLizzie:

Thank you all; I feel affirmed, warm, rested and entertained. You are all lovely.

Every time I run in the rain, and my glasses start needing windscreen wipers, I think "Ah, that's why people wear hats." And then I forget again.

In reply to BusyLizzie:



I remember.

So I stopped running.

Martin

In reply to BusyLizzie:

Yesterday I set off to do some hill reps on the bike in the cool sunshine. It hailed. Today I did a road race. It hailed

In reply to BusyLizzie:

bit wimpy, but glad you enjoyed yourself nevertheless..

In reply to BusyLizzie:

You were brave, valiant and persevering, and I bet you felt great once you were warm and dry.

I did a long, fast descent on a bike into hailstones coming down from the cairngorm funicular station and it wasn't fun!

My most surprising weather story involved the high level via ferrata which takes you to the summit of Sas Rigais in the Dolomites. It was a red hot July day when we set off, but we were caught in a snowstorm almost as soon as we reached the start of the via ferrata. At one point I clipped my karabiner to my finger instead of the hawser because it was so numb I couldn't tell the difference!

In reply to BusyLizzie:
a) You were a true pilgrim etc etc
b) I've been on Sgurr Thearlaich in Skye when the slabs were so wet underfoot that the only way to get down off it to the top of the Stone Chute, even the easy way which is about 15 degrees, was to abseil. I've been in Coire an t-Sneachda when it was so windy and the snow was so deep that the only way to get out was to rope up with Henning and let him drag me out. I've been on Beinn Dubhcraig when it was so cold that I got a nosebleed. I've been at Ribblehead on a bike when it was so hot that I stuck my head in the pool that is the source of the Ribble and still came out with hyperthermia. And I've been on the A93 on a bike when I was so knackered that I lay down beside the corner-chevrons sign at the Invercauld Bridge and slept for 30 minutes..
Will that do, or do you want more? I have more

In reply to BusyLizzie:
...Oh, and I have driven from Braemar to the Linn of Dee in an April dawn with a rainbow, precisely 80 yards away and no more than 40 yards from its left side to its right, at my right shoulder every yard of the way.

Some things that happen are so fantastically beautiful that you can hardly believe they're happening.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

... and when thou hast done, thou hast not done, for you have more...

Ah, yes; not living in Scotland - and having led a rather sheltered life - I can't produce any real weather stories!!

In reply to BusyLizzie:

At least thou hast Donne. Who always brings something to the party.

In reply to Tim Chappell:


Have a big can.....

In reply to BusyLizzie:

I was having a smoke one night outside when marble sized hail stones started coming down, someone started screaming and then ran towards the shelter of the woods. One of those screams that starts with a gradual "ow...oh f*ck...ouch" and then progresses to full on, panic striken shrieks. Pretty sure I did the fits of laughter thing as well.

In reply to BusyLizzie:

Not hailstones, but cold.

In 1981-2 I was an 18-19 year old spending a gap year in Birmingham. Not for me a far-eastern odyssey. No, I chose Moseley and Solihull. And it was bloody cold that winter. I mean, really cold. One time, on the way up from my home town of Chippenham, the train took fours to get to Bath, when it should have taken 10 minutes. The points had frozen, the gas torch used to unfreeeze them ran out of gas, people started to abandon the train...

I joined the Solihull and Sparkhill athletics club, and they did these 10 mile training runs around Brum, at a quite a pace. In my memory, I did the distance in 63 minutes that winter. I have often thought this must be false, since I can't get near that now, but I did do them shoulder to shoulder with someone who ran the first London Marathon the next Spring in a minute or two under 3 hours, so I might not be too far wrong.

Anyway, I am sure that the -10-ish temperatures, the several feet of piled-up snow at the pavement edge and the consequent fear of getting lost and spending longer outside than was necessary did a lot to keep me going. Not that my rented house was a lot warmer than it was outside, mind.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

In what way? I think a second lap should have been done.

I ran the Rutland Marathon in November 2012. Sections of footpath were knee deep in water. The wind and rain coming off the lake were horrendous. Runners and marshalls were suffering mild hypothermia.

I still got a PB though. Happy days.

In reply to mbh:

I remember that winter - waiting for a very delayed train in a freezing Coventry station, to get back to uni, and then it was sooooo cold there. Perhaps that was the year the toothpaste froze. In those days I didn't have the good sense to go running!