Last night, I had a rather unusual experience when I went for a run around the neighborhood, which I like to do a few times a week, usually at night.
The following is what I wrote in my journal, right after I came back from the run. I just thought I’d share it with all of you:
8:58 PM: Just came back from running. This was a rather interesting experience, in that there were thunderstorms with very heavy rain during the late afternoon a few hours earlier, with more forecast for the evening. After the rain, things seemed to settle down a little, and there were a few patches of clear sky visible.
After a while, however, the rumbling of thunder could be heard again, and I expected the rain to return at that time. However, no rain came down, and as evening fell, the flashes of lighting were more easily visible in the darkening skies.
This went on for an hour or so, and I then decided to take a chance and go for a run, with the hopes that things would remain dry for the duration of the run, perhaps for the greater part of an hour or so.
And so I set out. There was almost no wind, and I could see the large clouds hovering in the distance. Every once in a while, they would light up brilliantly as lightning flashed through their inner regions. The landscape would light up, revealing the trees and houses along the roadway.
I started running, and the frequent flashes of lightning came from a number of different locations in the sky, some from far away in the distance, and some from a bank of clouds hovering apparently nearby over the ocean. However, I noted that the sound of thunder took a while to reach me – at least 10 to 15 seconds or more, and so I realized that those “nearby” clouds were at least two to three miles away. They did seem closer, but then, I was getting but fleeting clear glimpses of them when the lightning flashed within them, like a bunch of flashbulbs going off in their bellies. The low rumbling sound of the thunder was reminiscent of the rolling sounds heard in a bowling alley, at times accentuated with a slight crackling sound as well.
And while I ran, there were times when I could actually see stars twinkling above me! I saw constellation Orion high overhead, and Sirius twinkled brightly in a clearing between the large clouds, which occasionally flashed brilliantly with the flickering of lightning. It was a very interesting and unusual contrast of light shows that nature was putting on that evening.
And yet there was no rain. It was a marvelous (though potentially dangerous) setting to go running in.
And so I ran my usual course, with the roads still damp from the rains that had fallen earlier, and large puddles remained on the side of the road here and there. And the scene would be brightly illuminated with the occasional flashing of lightning in the clouds.
As I was nearing the end of my run, I noticed the slightest mist coming down. And shortly after I got back home, it started raining heavily again.
The experience impressed me such that I just had to write about it… and I can hear the sound of the rain as I write this.
It was a run to remember.
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