Gang Aft Agley

The famous line from Burns's poem certainly applied this weekend, when we had planned to run 12 miles.  First, it rained.  But a more serious obstacle for me was a 48-hour stomach virus that laid me so low I could not leave the house for two full days, finally beginning to recover on Sunday (enough for two easy miles down the road).  Imodium became a new and very valuable friend.  And I learned again the ingredients of the B.R.A.T. diet.  Who knows how we contract these bacterial infections?  A careless hand on the drinking fountain or the door at the public restrooms?  I am religious about using hand sanitizer after handling money.  Perhaps I overuse it, as MaryAnn suggested.  In any case, it cause us to miss dinner with friends on Saturday night, an evening with the Literacy Council on Sunday, and my final long run two weeks from the half marathon.

On top of that, it has been raining nearly every day, and neither of us is eager to run in the soaking character-building rains of the past.  But runners must learn to be flexible, and today the weather cleared for a brief two hours in the morning, enough for me to be able to complete 10 relatively good miles, although I have to admit I was pretty soaked when I returned home from the intermittent drizzle that would tease me, almost clearing entirely, then returning with renewed energy (usually where there was no shelter).  In the afternoon, another window of opportunity suddenly materialized as the radar showed clear skies and a chance of rain of 0% all afternoon (it was 50% as early as this morning, which is why I chose to take the chance and run then).  So as I write this afternoon, Martha is out completing her final long run, and in much better conditions than I had.

So perhaps after all we will have no "grief an' pain," or sodden shoes, at the end of day.

. . . Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

          Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

          For promis’d joy!