Why I Run in the Rain

This has been one of my most popular articles over the years, and every now and then, I like to bring it back out, as the message never gets old.

Enjoy.
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(original version published at MMA Weekly.com)

When I was in college, I used to do a fair bit of running in my workouts. Normally, I did my strength work Mon-Fri in the mid-morning between classes. On Sun-Thurs nights - say 9:00 or 10:00 - I'd go run.

I was no marathoner, but I averaged 2.5-6 miles per day.

I enjoyed running. Usually just past the one-mile mark, I get that "tingly" feeling. This meant that endorphins had kicked in, and I was no longer feeling any kind of "pain" from the work. Plugged into my Walkman (now an mp3 player), I had a good "groove"going by this point, and the rest of the effort was just doing it.

I enjoy running in the rain. The water cools me, the air is thick with moisture and easy to take in, and as it's not "ideal" weather, most people are inside...I can go out, start running, and almost "lose" myself in the effort. My runs were usually longer in the rain, and more intense.

(In other words, I always ran harder in the rain.)

Now, I live and went to college in North Carolina. If you know anything about the southeast, you know that there are times during the spring and fall where it rains
virtually nonstop for weeks on end.

I loved this time of year.

I used to catch a lot of crap from women for running in the rain.

My mom used to pester me, "You're going to catch a cold!" A girl I was pretty good friends with used to shake her head at me, "I'm telling you, you're going to catch pneumonia!"

Now, if I do any running in the rain, my wife hounds me, "You're going to get sick and give it to everybody in the house!"

It's harder to put up with all this crap than it is to actually do the running!!

One fateful afternoon, it began raining, and I decided to get my run in early. I had gone a couple miles, and the endorphins were running wild. I was "lost" in the run,
and had let go mentally - I was just worried about the physical effort.

As I rounded a corner on campus, a car drove by and honked. I threw up a hand to wave, but, keeping my head down, I could care less who it was.

I just worried about putting one foot in front of the other. Later that day, I was at the university cafeteria having dinner with a couple buddies when a few girls joined us.

These girls were "friends" of ours in that we all knew and were cordial with each other, but we didn't really like one another.

They were "rich kids" - the kind that had been given everything they ever wanted, never had a job, and never had to work for anything.

I think that by now, most of you who follow my work know what I'm like - just a "regular guy." These girls were the exact opposite of a "regular guy."

As they sat down, one of them began to chide me, "Hey Wiggy, why are you out running in the rain?"

Turns out that they were the ones who had honked at me earlier.

"Don't you know you'll get sick?"



I rolled my eyes.

"Besides, there are Stairmasters over at the gym - why not just use those?"

"Because poor guys run," I replied.

She looked at me like I was nuts. I knew she didn't get it.

And she never would.

When I went back to my dorm room, I got one of my workout shirts and a felt-tip marker. I wrote "Poor Guys Run" on the back across the shoulders. I wore that shirt on almost every run I went on for two years.

Some people - the "regular guys" - got it. Everybody else was clueless.

But that was Ok. It's sort of like what the Westside Barbell T-shirts say: "If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand."

The next time you're out doing your conditioning, making your way to the boxing gym, or even though you're sore and dead tired, you still go to grappling class anyway, and somebody looks at you like you're crazy and wants to know "Why?" just tell them,

"Because poor guys run."

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt "Wiggy" Wiggins
http://www.workingclassfitness.com