What Runners Get Wrong about Race-Day Fueling and How to Change It
With a little practice, you can make positive changes to your race-day fueling strategy so that you can more consistently perform to your potential.
I’ve always loved running in bad weather—and that includes running in the rain. There’s something almost otherworldly about being out when clouds swirl and shift, when the sky turns gray to black and splits open with heavy rain. It feels almost like I’m being let in on a secret—the whole world is a little wilder and I feel more alive. I’m offered a unique chance to move through something magical that at once brings me joy and makes me stronger.
My first college cross country race was in the evening under dark skies. When the gun went off it was just occasional heavy raindrops falling. I remember wiping them off my face. But by the middle of the race, the course was mud-soaked and slippery. The rain felt more like a wall of water than individual droplets. My legs were covered in thick mud splattered up to my thighs and thunder was rolling closer. I crossed the line sopping wet and sipping tiny bits of rainwater that landed on my lip. I clicked my watch for a new PR. The memory is visceral to this day.
While I’m sure I would have run faster if I wasn’t sliding through slick mud while being drenched in torrential rain, the looming thunderstorm in the distance brought with it an element of excitement (and maybe a little fear of lightning) that sent my mind and body into a sort of joyful, meditative hyper-focus. I felt fully present and alive.
While I certainly don’t advocate running through a full-on thunderstorm (it can be terrifying and dangerous), I do advocate for running in the rain—as well as in the wind and even in the snow. And I fully believe that braving the elements will not only make you a stronger runner, but also a happier, more adapted human. Here’s why.
I have many running friends who chase bluebird skies for their workouts. Then, they combine the ideal forecast with the perfect terrain/surface to ensure they can hit their splits exactly as prescribed (if not a bit faster). And while I do understand that it feels good to see consistent splits click off on our GPS (and beneficial, too, for confidence sometimes) doing this all the time creates a false sense of control that limits our ability to run freely and feel what it’s like to just push hard and pull back when we need to. It might even make us too dependent on what we see on our watch instead of listening to our body.
If left unchecked, you might find yourself unknowingly creating the perfect storm of inflexibility when it comes to managing race-day conditions (what if your watch dies and what if there are 30-mph wind gusts all day?) or, let’s face it, being able to manage the metaphorical storms that life throws your way off the road or trail.
We absolutely need to move workouts around sometimes for personal conflicts like kids’ schedules, work meetings, illness, etc. But unless the weather is truly hazardous, I say do the workout anyway, brave the rain and wind and slow(er) splits. Remember what it was like to run before we had GPS watches and we just had to go by feel all the time. Most importantly, accept that you were actually never in control and never will be because control is an illusion.
So enjoy the rain pelting your hat (but wear a hat with a brim to shield your eyes, it will help) because you’re doing something hard when very few other people are. Plus, when you stop trying to control everything, you start learning to better adapt.
There are all sorts of tangentially related studies on this—whether it’s about surviving adverse conditions (voluntary hardship), ice plunges to increase mental toughness or simply walking outside when the weather is less than ideal to decrease overall stress—simply put: being outdoors in not-so-ideal conditions builds grit. And grit makes you more resilient.
But what does that look like during a single run?
After everything I’ve already said about how much I love to run in the rain, you’d think that every time a storm rolls through I’m just itching to get my running shoes on and bolt out the door. Not so. In fact, like many people, I lose almost all of my motivation. It’s a battle with myself to get out the door. And sometimes that fight goes on for a good mile after I’ve already started.
But then something starts to happen. Literally every time. I almost always smile and feel proud of myself for making the choice to do something hard. And that feels really good. It’s practice using a muscle that helps me handle discomfort when I don’t have a choice (whether that’s in a race or in life).
From there, I find myself tuning into the relative quiet. I’m usually alone. And the world smells and sounds different. My discomfort melts away when I realize my wet clothes really aren’t so bad (they’re designed to get wet after all) and that my core feels warm because I dressed appropriately. My breaths feel stronger and deeper, like I’m quite literally cleaning out my lungs (Did you know the air quality increases when it rains because of something called wet deposition? It’s when rain pulls pollutants and particles down out of the atmosphere.).
Finally, I realize that if I can enjoy running during weather that most deem horrible, then I can more easily make my way through chaos and uncertainty—two things that life undoubtedly brings in troves.
And you can practice this, too. In short, you have an internal struggle (psyching yourself up to run in the rain), you make the difficult choice to run, you overcome discomfort and you find joy in the chaos. Over and over every time inclement weather strikes. You do that enough and you can’t help but become a more resilient human.
But there’s more! Now that you’re out there and you’re becoming grittier, you can get mindful, too!
Since very few people are out running on the roads or the trails when it’s raining, I find myself able to think more deeply than a typical solo run. Some of my best ideas, most creative solutions or personal problem solving moments have happened on a rain run. I credit this not just to the solo time, but to the extra oxygenation my brain is receiving from all that clean air (I have no research to back this up, but I’m convinced this is true).
Now the opposite thing happens when the weather is particularly bad—like uncomfortably cold or a pelting sideways wind and rain wall—rather than deep internal reflection, I find myself firmly rooted in the moment and my external surroundings. The smells are stronger, the colors around me feel brighter; it’s like an immersive-feeling flow state that immediately calms me (despite being in a state of consistent effort).
Flow states like this have been linked to better emotional regulation, creativity boosts, heightened memory function, and an overall elevated sense of well-being (as a mom of two young children, I very much feel how these types of runs consistently improve my emotional regulation and help me show up in the ways I want to).
Finally, on top of all of this, we have very few opportunities to truly extract ourselves from the chaos and connectivity of modern life. And just by its very wild nature, bad weather allows us to do this (you may even leave your phone at home because you don’t want to get it wet even if you’d normally take it).
So, it’s an easy excuse to unplug and just be out in the elements, experiencing the world in a way we don’t get to every day. So, battle with yourself and say yes to running in the rain, let yourself get absolutely soaked, covered in mud and remind yourself that growth never happens without some amount of storm.
RELATED: A Complete Runner’s Guide to Running and Racing in the Heat
If you’re going to be running in the rain, you need to have the right gear to keep your head and torso dry, and also give your feet a chance to shed moisture and stay warm. Here are a few things I’d recommend for running in the rain.
Wear a brimmed hat. This goes a long way in ensuring that rain doesn’t get in your eyes during your run. I prefer the simple trucker hat and usually like to support my good friend Gina Lucrezi and sport one from Trail Sisters like the Mountain Mark Trucker ($20).
Wear wool-blend socks. Wool helps your feet stay warm even if they’re wet and it’s cold out. But don’t let wool fool you; if it’s hot out wool blends breathe really well! Darn Tough’s Micro-Crew Ultra-Lightweight Runnings Socks ($22) are my go-to.
Layer appropriately (you don’t always need a raincoat). Unless it’s very cold out, you probably don’t need GORE-TEX or a full-on rain shell. And, depending on the temperature, I sometimes opt for just a sports bra in the rain (feels more like a shower that way). All that said, if the temps are brisk, I almost always bring along the On Zero Jacket ($160). I’m obsessed with this jacket. Obsessed.
Contributing writer Ashley Arnold is the director of brand at Fleet Feet and an ultrarunner who lives in Missoula, Montana, with her husband and two young children. She tells stories through video, words and photos, and is most at home running trails, adventuring in wild places with her family and sipping coffee while eating cake.