I took my poor car to the mechanic near Tuna’s house on Sunday night for a tune-up. I took it to that specific shop because they said they would look at my check engine light for free (score!)  I dropped it off there, and had Tuna bring me home. I figured I would take a cab the 5.6 miles on Monday night to go pick the car up once the it was fixed.

But then I thought, 5.6 miles? I could RUN that far. Maybe I should RUN to pick up my car.

I was so smart and packed a change of clothes for Tuna to take home on Sunday so I would have some clean clothes to change into after my adventurous run on Monday night.

I hadn’t run outside in forever and am used to my water bottle on the treadmill, so I made a DIY handheld water bottle in anticipation of the long winding roads.

It looked a little cloudy when I was about to leave, but not too bad so I figured I’d venture out anyway. I was running along on the first leg of the run and was about two miles in to it when it started drizzling.

Ok, I can handle a little bit of rain.

A few seconds later it started torrential down-pouring. Like the ridiculous kind of midsummer rain that half seems like a slightly scary hurricane and half looks like a scene out of The Notebook.

However, usually the rain isn’t sopping through your running pouch with very important items in it such as your iPhone and iPod and fancy new headphones.

Not to mention the damn sidewalk stopped right as it started pouring.  It was kind of scary actually – running right on the edge of the road with slippery cars sliding all over the place in terrible weather. Never again!

I hope this isn’t what the Tough Mudder is going to be like: sopping shoes, being frozen and uncomfortable. Hmmm..well, it probably will be.

For about five minutes I toyed with my options. Should I just run for it and pray for my iPhone’s safety, hail down the nearest cab, or should I whip out my phone and call Tuna to come and save me?

I tried the first option for approximately 9.7 seconds.

I stumbled upon a patch of glorious sidewalk and huddled under some trees while proceeding to poke my head out into the heavier rain every 15 seconds and wishing for a cab to come my way.

Of course there wouldn’t be a single cab driving down a busy suburban road of DC the one time I’m stranded on the side of the road shivering.

It was time for Option 3: call Knight Tuna to come save his strong female lead (all the movies Netflix suggests for me are ones in the “strong female lead” category. Thanks, Netflix)

Too bad that plan required me to take out my sensitive-to-water-expensive-electronic-lifeline out of the safe confines of my fanny pack running pouch.  Heck no, I wasn’t going to risk getting my iPhone wet! But the situation was starting to get serious – I almost lost a contact. And I was was not about to lose a monthly.

Then, it appeared.

A faint, glimmering light in the distance.

A city bus! My little patch of sidewalk haven was a bus stop! (Please imagine the hallelujah chorus echoing as the bus approached.)

I didn’t have my metro card on me, but luckily I looked pathetic enough for the bus driver to take pity on my sopping wet self to give me a free bus ride to safety.

So I’m a huge snot actually terrified of city buses and have never been on one in the Washington DC metro area for the 20 years I’ve lived here (minus 4 years for college). My fear stems from getting on a bus and winding up somewhere random. I guess I’m technically scared of the bus routes map and not of the bus itself. Anyway, this bus was not a scary bus. It was a magical bus that saved me!

Thank goodness I was able to grab a map and frantically figure out where I should get off. You know, to make sure I didn’t end up on the Chinatown bus to New York City or something. Because with me, that would happen.

I was able to get off closeish to Tuna’s house and he came to pick me up. Sir Tuna to the rescue!

The moral of the story is though I only got 2 miles in yesterday, I still learned a lot about running:

– you can use running as a mode of transportation

– don’t go running if it’s about to rain/flash flood

– take an alternate route to make sure you have a sidewalk or path to run on a busy road

– always carry your cell phone on you when you’re running outside

– my DIY handheld water bottle is cool

Have you ever been caught in the rain on a run?

Do you use running as a form of transportation?