Yesterday, I saw at least a half dozen stories on Instagram about the forecast for the 2018 Brooklyn Half. It does not look awesome. Apparently, we should expect some combination of rain, thunderstorms, and Sharknado on Saturday morning.
I have a well-documented history of complaining about race-day weather. But I learned a lot after this year’s Boston Marathon, even though I didn’t run it. My biggest takeaway? No matter how well you train for a race, there’s literally nothing you can do to stop a monsoon from happening.
But I also understand this isn’t comforting to anyone running the Brooklyn Half. I’m not pumped, either. Still, here are a few reminders to (maybe) help you get the most out of the race, even if all of your wildest dreams don’t come true.
Resist the Urge to Check the Weather Every Hour
OK, let’s be honest. TV meteorologists are accurate, what, maybe 4 out of every 10 times? If most of us could be good at our jobs 40% of the time, life would be a lot easier.
The last time I checked the forecast for Saturday, it looked something like this.
Notice that the phrase “100% chance” appears nowhere on the page. There are probably two reasons for this. First, this screenshot is from Sunday—which is six days before the race. But more importantly, it was likely written by someone who saw a doppler radar and said, “Let’s tell people it’s going to be awful outside, and if we’re wrong, nobody will be mad!”
A wise friend of mine recently said to me, “Don’t check the weather until at least Wednesday, Moy!” I don’t know if there’s any data to support this, but for the sake of staying sane this week, I think it’s advice that we should all take.
Don’t Be Afraid to Adjust Your Goals
For the most part, my training for the 2018 Brooklyn Half has gone really well. I’ve been telling people that in ideal conditions, I might be able to break 1:40 for the first time. But here’s the thing—there’s a decent chance that we won’t have ideal conditions this weekend.
Will I be sad if I run the 2018 Brooklyn Half slower than expected? Probably! But the good news is that there’s still time to adjust my goals.
Last year, my time was a little over 1:45, which was a big ol’ personal record for me at the time. If weather makes it too difficult to break 1:40, maybe I’ll try to beat my previous Brooklyn Half PR. Or, maybe I’ll think about running faster than I did the last time it rained during a half marathon. Those are reasonable goals, I think. And even if I don’t hit them, I’ll still take the finisher’s medal and nag everyone at work about how I ran 13.1 miles the next morning.
It’s OK to Be a Little Sad
For those of you running the 2018 Brooklyn Half, I bet you’ve trained really hard. All those long runs, amirite? I also have a feeling that you had all sorts of hopes and dreams for this weekend. So, you’re probably sad about all the rain you’re seeing in the forecast. And if that’s the case, it’s totally OK.
There’s one thing that most of the runners I know have in common. We like to have control over everything. And because we can’t do anything about the weather, we do the next best thing—we refresh The Weather Channel until we get some glimmer of hope. Only 30% chance of rain? Perfect! They’re only estimating 3 inches of snow now? I can work with that!
If the *worst case scenario* happens this weekend, we can be bummed out together. And if you happen to find me at the finish line, maybe I’ll buy you a hot dog.
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