# Running in the winter in the rain

By [BLOG OF JAKE](https://paragraph.com/@jake) · 2020-03-06

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Some people like running. I imagine a small percentage of them like running in the rain. I doubt many of even those people like running in the winter in the rain, and yet that is what I did today.

Below is a picture that I took of the path along the East River that I mentioned in my post about the [catching of the dog](https://blogofjake.com/2020/03/04/catching-of-the-dog/) the other day.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/b94248c24eef5f043406ef654bc082b1.jpg)

It shows how many people like running in the winter in the rain.

Once I finished my run, I thought about whether I enjoyed running in the winter in the rain. My first thought was no, of course not. I think that was because that would be anyone normal's normal answer, but I thought about it some more. I kind of did. I enjoyed it because I knew no one else was doing it and because I was, because I believe in the running schedule I am following right now, because my legs felt good because yesterday was a rest day, and because I enjoyed the [podcast with Elon Musk](https://blog.ycombinator.com/elon-musk-on-how-to-build-the-future/) that I listened to during the run. As much as any other reason, I think I enjoyed it because I knew I would be glad that I did it.

I have long thought about the difference between doing things I will enjoy in the moment versus doing things I will be glad I did later. Stated differently, I think about the difference between living life to enjoy every moment versus living life to be glad about what I have done with it all the way through. Ideally, the two are one in the same, but often times, they are not. I realized today that we can do typically unenjoyable things that we think we will be glad we did later, and that we can actually enjoy them _because_ we know we will be glad we did them later.

This may be easily intuitive to some. It may even make me sound as foolish as I must have looked running in the winter in the rain today. Regardless, I think it is meaningful. I believe it is good to do things that we are confident we will be glad we did later, and to enjoy those things, for that reason alone or otherwise.

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*Originally published on [BLOG OF JAKE](https://paragraph.com/@jake/running-in-the-winter-in-the-rain)*