The Art of Racing in the Rain (er, an Utter Deluge)

The year was 2012.

I'd run my first marathon a year before in what I thought was a pretty decent time for me, considering it was my first and *especially* considering that I'd been sick recently & run the whole thing with an asthma attack. 2012 had been a pretty epic year for me running-wise; in spite of not really training all that hard, I'd PR'd the 5K, 10K, and half marathon, and could not wait to take my second crack at the full. Since CIM had been so good to me the year before, I saw no reason to mess with any other race and signed up to run it again the first week of December.

Fast forward to the night before the race, with forecasters using words like "winter typhoon" and "atmospheric river" and "pineapple express". Weather people predicted multiple inches of rain between 5am & 10am (so, like, *right* during the race window) and 20-40mph headwinds. Several of us stayed the night before the race with Courtney's parents, just a short car ride from the start, and were definitely feeling more than a little trepidation about the weather.

This shot of Heather's will never not be the one I include
in any discussion of CIM 2012. Because, no. NO, SERIOUSLY.

Now, it is California, so while the start at CIM can feel a bit nippy at 6-6:30am, we're very lucky in that it's never really THAT cold; temperatures tend to hover around the high 30s/low 40s and rise as the sun comes up. (Ignore that pesky 2013 outlier where it was something like 17F!) But when it's pouring rain and windy, high 30s/low 40s feels pretty darn cold.

I remember the group of us debating in Courtney's parents' living room the night before what to wear; shorts as planned? Or tights, because it might feel super cold in the rain? Or would tights make it worse because then you've got wet spandex against your skin? Arm warmers? Jacket? Or would a water proof jacket just fill up with sweat & get humid & clammy inside? Should we put shopping bags over our shoes before the race to keep the feet dry as long as possible?

So many questions.

Let me tell you, running that race sucked epically, but I learned a lot, and never was I as grateful for the experience as I was sitting in my hotel on Sunday the night before Boston coming to terms with the epically, horribly, terribly awful forecast. Reading online threads amongst those of us running, I inevitably found myself flashing back to those conversations in Courtney's parents' living room the night before CIM 2012. Except now I had knowledge to share! And wisdom to impart!

Still, some people were just determined to do the useless things no matter how many people told them it was a bad idea.

So. Here are my tips for racing a marathon in an absolute freezing squall. I'm not talking about just a little good old fashioned rain, here; those tips are simple. Wear whatever you'd normally wear and maybe get a little more aggressive with the Body Glide. Maybe a good hat with a visor. But really, you'll be juuuust fine. No special equipment or extra measures needed.

It rained respectably hard for most of this race and I was regretting the
arm warmers, gloves, & compression socks almost immediately.

I'm also not talking about a training run where you'll be running a lot slower (and thus cooler), or a short race like a 10K or half where you'll be finished in an hour or two or less.

I'm talking about situations where you find yourself facing an absolute deluge, and maybe some insane wind, and maybe some more-than-slightly-nippy temperatures as well for 3-4-5 hours on end. Having done it twice now, this is my effort to pay it forward & shed a little more light on what the heck a person's to do.

Stupid Amounts of Rain

You've had a splendid training cycle and can't wait to tackle your goal marathon this coming weekend, until, CURSES, in the course of your usual forecast-stalking you see that that pesky weather man is now calling for 74 inches of rain the morning of your race. WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS, EH?

Screw him, though! You've got this.

• If it's not particularly cold or windy, one cardinal rule of racing in a deluge applies, and that is Wear as little as possible. Say it with me now: As little as possible. It's not what your animal brain is going to want to do. Your animal brain is going to want to bundle you up in tights and longsleeves and a rain jacket and whatever else. Resist! You think it'll keep you warm and comfortable, but every inch of fabric on your body, even technical fabric, is just one more inch with the potential to get soaked through & chafe the bejeesus out of your skin. Also, you'll warm up fast once you're running at race pace, and the last thing you want to do is over heat. Do NOT give in to the siren call of the rain jacket! (On a training run, on the other hand, I'll usually go with a rain jacket because I know I won't get nearly as hot as I do racing.)
• Just accept now that your shoes, socks, and feet are going to be absolutely soaked within minutes of going outside. Water resistant shoes can be nice but NOT because they're going to keep your socks or feet dry; mostly, they're just protection from that shock of awful when you suddenly get splashed right in the shoe or step ankle-deep in a puddle.
• Wool socks wool socks wool socks. If you've never known the life-changing magic of wearing wool socks in the rain or snow, you have to try it. Not even kidding, I have stepped ankle-deep into ice-cold puddles in Utah in January and just a few minutes later could have sworn my sock was dry. Wool is truly magical.
  
  Saucony RunShields & wool ski socks (which we'll get to below). Trail shoes also work (and you know they'll have a solid grip on the wet pavement) but that's a lot of extra weight to carry on your feet for 26 miles.

• Consider a hat with a bill; it really goes a long way towards keeping the rain out of your eyes. People are always recommending sunglasses for this but if it's not actually sunny, I find they just fog up and/or bead up with rain, and a hat with a visor is always plenty for keeping the rain out of my face.
• Forget the plastic-grocery-bags-tied-over-the-shoes trick. It doesn't work, not even a little. There's no way to create a water-tight seal around your leg (at least, not without going to absurd extremes) and if it's raining hard enough that you're even considering this, trust me, it'll be in there in minutes, and then you've just got two swimming pools tied around your feet. (It also makes walking REALLY slippery. Don't even think of trying to run like this. You can go shopping bags over the socks inside the shoes if you want but don't expect that to do much, either. Just get some wool socks & be done with it)
• In general I'm a Body Glide girl but if it is an absolute fucking deluge, you can't do better than Aquaphor. It's thicker, more viscous, and will bond to your skin in a way that Body Glide just doesn't, and the thick greasiness of it makes it virtually impossible for rain to wash away (unlike with Body Glide). It's not stupid expensive & can be found at any drugstore. (If it won't be cold, I'd advise against Vaseline for reasons we'll get to below.)
• To trash bag poncho or not to trash bag poncho before the race? This is a personal call, I guess. I have not personally found them to be very effective if it's raining at all hard and then you've got to figure out something to do with it once you start running. But if it means a little extra comfort for your while you're standing around in a corral, okay. If you go plastic poncho, though, ditch it BEFORE you start running (you won't melt in the rain, trust me; you'll also warm up & get over it super fast anyway) and PLEASE, for the love of all that is good in the world, don't throw your plastic down in the middle of the road. So much of Boston was an utter mine field of slip-and-fall hazards because people started in plastic ponchos & realized during the race that they were just causing problems.

Stupid Amounts of Rain, But Also Crazy Wind!

Sometimes the weather is just rude. Like. You've just spent the last perfectly good 18 weeks of your life training to kicking this marathon's effing ass and now what do you see when you check the forecast but predictions of buckets of rain and also some dumb inconsiderate 40mph head wind. What even.

Of course, once you're dealing with a serious headwind, you'll have to reassess any time goals you had. And you might consider adjusting your wardrobe a bit as well. Here's what I've got for you.

• Once you're dealing with serious wind and a torrential downpour, even if it won't be particularly cold, it's smart to consider a thin extra layer since wind on wet skin can get surprisingly chilly, even if you're moving and it's not technically that cold out. Ie, if you usually race in a tank/crop/sports bra, think about a thin tech long sleeves, or even just a tank and arm warmers. The principle is the same as wearing a wet suit in the ocean: The water is cold, but once it soaks through the fabric, your body heat heats the wet layer, creating a kind of insulation effect. Of course, people run hotter and colder and YMMV, but in my experience, just a *little* extra fabric goes a long way when you're talking about rain & wind in moderate temps.
• Go with something close-fitting. Baggy clothes can be problematic in the wind.
  
  Pouring wind & rain, but I was perfectly comfortable.

• Related, do not not NOT go garbage bag/plastic poncho if it's super windy, even if it is pouring rain, because congratulations, you've just turned yourself into a giant sail and probably quadrupled the amount of energy you'll spend fighting the wind.
  
  Wrong no very bad try again

• I stand by my recommendation above re: wearing a hat with a visor in the rain, but if it's super windy, consider getting some giant hair clips to secure it to your head. I did this at CIM 2012 and also Boston this year and was so glad I did; so many times I could feel my hat very nearly flying off.
• Personally, I don't advise racing in tights/capris unless it is truly arctic or you know from experience that you really, really just run super super cold. Most people warm up a lot more than they remember and it's just more fabric to cause more chafing in more places.

How moderate is moderate in terms of temps? Of course, it varies from person to person, but CIM 2012 was 46F at the start and maybe mid 50's by the finish, pouring rain, & windy, and I was perfectly comfortable in a tank, shorts, arm warmers, and a running cap. In fact by the end of the race I was wishing I had somewhere to stash the arm warmers.

The Trifecta:
Stupid Amounts of Rain, Plus Crazy Wind, And Hey, Why Not Some Near-Freezing Temps, Just For Funsies

See also: Boston 2018.

As someone in my Boston facebook group put it the day before, "At least we'll get
a little break in the rain around noon!" You had to laugh to keep from crying.

For reference, it was 36F when I started in Hopkinton around 10:50am and about 38F in Boston when I finished four hours later. As you can see, it was forecast to be more like low 40s but it was not, at least not while I was running.

Remember that the cardinal rule for buckets of rain in moderate temps is wear as little as possible. Running will keep you warm and every piece of clothing is somewhere else you're at risk of nasty chafing.

**However**, once you're talking about rain and also near-freezing temps and wind, there is a new cardinal rule that trumps that one, and it is called Don't end up with hypothermia. It's a real thing and some 2,000+ runners were pulled off of the course because of it this year at Boston.

• If you're going to be out in such a mess for 3-5 hours, I recommend going with a light waterproof running jacket or windbreaker. If you're like me, you'll still warm up pretty quickly once you're running, but it will all be for naught if your skin is immediately drenched in cold water and all your body heat blown away by the wind. (Though, I know some people who wore a tech longsleeves only. Some regretted it and some were fine. I did not want to risk it & was neither too warm nor too cold in my jacket.)
• The cardinal rule of wind of (Don't be a sail) still applies, so try to find something that's fairly close-fitting that won't blow around too much.
• Aquaphor anywhere you're concerned about chafing. I also rub it all over my feet and each individual toe and I've never gotten a blister in the rain.
• Speaking of jackets and Aquaphor: A waterproof running jacket on bare skin is a recipe for all kinds of unfortunate chafing. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE! Either Aquaphor every square inch of your body under the jacket, OR wear the lightest, thinnest layer you can find underneath it to protect your skin. (No joke, when I took my jacket off after Boston, so much skin came right off with it. For days, I looked like I had leprosy or something. It was awful and there are still scars.)
• For me, personally, I'm in shorts unless the wind chill is below 20F. My legs work harder than anything and it takes a LOT to actually WANT to trap any of that heat next to my skin the way tech fabric does. Every individual has to figure out their threshold with this but it's probably a lower temperature than you think. (Paradoxically, when it's wet and cold and windy, tights can actually make you colder. Wet tech fabric can act as an insulator up to a point, but if it gets too cold or the wind chill is too much, you can end up just bleeding body heat. So this is another reason I don't like to wear them in the type of situation we were in in Boston.)
• A great way to balance the cardinal rules of "Wear as little as possible" and "Don't get hypothermia/frostbite" is to slather Vaseline over any exposed skin. (At Boston, that was face, neck, ears, and legs for me.) People think it's just another anti-chafing measure but Aquaphor is a much better tool for that. The magic of Vaseline is that it both repels water and locks in some heat. And being super greasy and impervious to water, it also won't rinse off in the rain.
  
  The dream team of rainy, windy, freezing marathons

• Remember how I said wool socks earlier? If it's actively cold, consider thick ski socks, which are the best of both worlds--you get the insta-dry magic of wool combined with the extra warmth of knee-high compression socks. Plus you get a bit of extra cushion! I absolutely swear by ski socks in the rain.
• Once you're talking about rain and cold temps, I recommend gloves. Without rain, for me, it's usually got to be below 20F before I feel like I really need them, but rain and cold is a different thing. At that point you want waterproof, and be sure you actually check. I had a fairly tough pair of gloves that looked pretty waterproof, but just a few miles into the swim race it became obvious that they weren't. My hands actually stayed warm enough while I was running, but once I stopped I quickly lost feeling in my fingers. Something that worked well for a lot of people at Boston that I didn't think of was to wear whatever gloves they had, then wear latex gloves over those. Brilliant!
  
  Ready to rock 'n roll. Or just not freeze to death, at least.

In any case, this is what has worked for me in the past (with the above-mentioned lessons learned about the rain jacket on bare skin for hours and hours!). Ever run in a freezing cold/stupid windy/utter deluge? What did you wear? How did it work for you? Any additional tips?