I ran 6.25 miles on the same route that I used on Thursday. In fact, my run followed the same pattern that it did on Thursday: good in the beginning, tired in the middle, and good at the end. The difference in the two runs is that I took fewer rest stops today (only one near the turn-around point) and the change from being tired to having a good run at the end happened sooner than on Thursday.
When I first started the run, the sky was mostly clear with fluffy clouds, and the temperature was in the low 70s (F). However, as my run progressed, the sky darkened, and I could tell it was either raining over the mountains or soon would be raining there. A north wind of about 5-10 mph was blowing, and that was good, because the storm clouds were gathering in the south, and a north wind would help keep the storm from advancing so much. However, after I had gone about half a mile on my return trip, the wind changed from a north wind to a south wind, and that meant the storm would advance at an even faster rate. Sure enough, the storm did just that. It soon started to sprinkle and then it settled into a gentle but steady rain. I hadn't expected the rain, and I had left my rain gear at home. That was OK, because the air temperature was warm, and the rain didn't feel cold. I enjoy running in warm summer rain. This rain wasn't quite a warm rain, but it wasn't a cold rain either.
There was a lot of thunder in the mountains. When I see lightning flashes, I count seconds until I hear the corresponding thunder to get an approximation of the distance to the lightning strikes (I assume 5 seconds per mile). The lightning strikes were about 1 1/2 miles away, and I wasn't worried about them. However, when I was about two miles from my car, I realized the lightning strikes were only a mile away. This worried me since there aren't a lot of trees near that part of the path, and I was one of the higher objects in the area. I did, though, realize the lightning strikes were in the clouds, and I decided I would be OK. The sky was pretty black, and I could hardly see the mountains due to the storm clouds that covered the mountains, down almost to the valley floor.
My car was parked at the South Jordan East Pavilion, which is at about 108th South. When I reached the new bridge at 114th South, I stopped for a few minutes to tweet about the rain. My telephone is an inexpensive model and doesn't have a full keyboard. Tweeting via texting is thus a slow process. The light on my phone turned off, and I couldn't see the keyboard. In addition, I couldn't read the screen very well due to not having my glasses, and I made a couple of spelling errors. After sending the tweet, I continued my run. As I approached my car, I noticed the rain was stopping, and by the time I arrived home, the rain had stopped. Utah storms don't last very long, in contrast to some of the storms I experienced in Massachusetts (heavy rain that didn't stop for two or three days).
The hardest part of the run was taking off my wet t-shirt due to the cloth sticking to my back. After a couple minutes struggling with the t-shirt, I finally got it off, and I dressed in dry clothes. All in all, it was a great run! I'm still doing 1 minute of running and 1 minute of walking, although I ran the last half mile without stopping so I would get to my car sooner.
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