Water, Lightnings & Mobile Phones

23 July 2006
21 km - 1 hour 45.45 - 24ºC (75.2ºF) cloudy, distant thunder...

Mornings are deceptively cool. My friend Simon is over from England, and I persuade him to go for a long run earlier than usual, because I know how quickly it gets very hot. But at 7 in the morning the sky is covered with heavy rainclouds, and we don't think of taking water bottles with us. And, half way into the run, regret we hadn't.

Dogs seem to know better, and as soon as they see me putting on running gear they go to the water bowl and lap up what seems like tons of water while I just down my usual cup of coffee and a tall glass of lemon and sage drink I prepare myself.

It is a thunderstorm season. I look anxiously at the sky, weather forecast says ferocious thunderstorms in the morning, but it doesn't look like they are going to catch up with us. There have been warnings not to carry mobile phones while outside in a thunderstorm. Metal attracts lightnings, and the BBC reported a case of a girl who was struck by a lightning and severly injured when talking on her mobile in a park. The loop we take today takes us through open spaces, and over high hills. Last night at home we watched the storm with children as dozens of lightnings pierced the dark sky here and there and thunder seemed to crack right over our roof.

I normally take my phone on runs as an additional safety measure. The chances of being hit by a lightning are one in three million, far lower, I suspect, than having an accident while running, a twisted ankle or an attack by a lose dog. Which is why I still prefer to have the phone with me.

Mornings are deceptively cool. The storm doesn't catch us out running, but the heat does, and as we reach the gates of my house we both feel really underwatered. As we down glass after glass of the refreshing lemon & sage and do the stretches while dogs just roll in the grass, I think that a water bottle might be as good a safety precaution as carrying a mobile phone - or staying away from it.