Ask me what it's like to run 17 miles in pouring rain. No, let me save you the trouble. It blows.

This morning I ran a half marathon, Grete’s Great Gallop, with the New York Road runners. It was the Norwegian Festival half marathon and was two laps around Central Park starting at 8:45 a.m. I woke up a bit early and jogged about 2 1/2 miles to the starting line at 70th St and Fifth Avenue. It was misting and raining a little bit, but nothing too terrible. I got to the starting line with about 10 minutes to spare, and that's when the heavens opened up. For the 10 minutes before the race started we all stood there under a torrential downpour. Any part of my body that might have been dry when I arrived was now soaking wet, through my shoes, my socks, my favorite Syracuse mesh shorts and my favorite running T-shirt. All soaked. I probably added about 2 pounds of water weight.

As soon as the race began, the rain ended. What luck. But throughout the run there were periods of heavy rain to keep us drenched.

Early on I decided this would probably not be one of my better races, and that I was really just looking to do a 16 mile training run for the marathon. I figured between the heavy rain, my being exhausted from the one-mile run the day before, and having jogged a few miles before even starting, my time would probably not be very good. But I kept on trucking, kept up with the pack, zoned out between miles 6 through 11 and started thinking about some chapters for a book I'd like to write. But at each mile marker, my time was actually pretty good. When we neared the end, I realized I might actually be able to break 1:50, which is about 8min 20 sec pace per mile.

Almost. I came in at 1:50:25, which is 8:25 per mile. I really kicked ass! I finished up, had some Gatorade, peed, and continued jogging home for another 2.5 miles.

On my way back, I noticed my nipple was bleeding. Yes, this is probably the grossest injury anyone can have during a race. There was blood running down my white shirt, but luckily it didn't hurt at all. I felt pretty happy about this, as I was a nipple bleeding virgin up until this point. What an exciting time. But I realized that the photo of me finishing the race would probably show my bloody shirt in full view. I can't wait to see it.