Are You Opening Yourself Up To This Lurking Danger?

Tonight, the timing Gods have made it necessary to do my joggling outside.  Unfortunately, the Chicago weather is rainy so I’ll be doing this workout in the rain. This won’t be too bad because it’s a short 2 mile juggling run. A streaking joggler has got to have some recovery days.  Additionally, I’ve reviewed the 10 tips for running in the rain so I feel prepared.

Then I had to go and read this article about a 37-year old Canadian jogger who was stuck by lightning.  He had multiple injuries to his head including burns, ruptured eardrums and a broken jaw. He even lost about 50% of his hearing.

Danger of iPods in the Rain

Now, most of the time when people are hit lightning they get away with only minor burns.  Apparently, your skin is resistant and stops electricity from entering your body. In this case, the guy was wearing an iPod and that turned him into a human capacitor. The lightning was able to travel through the headphones and enter his head causing the damage.

Ironically, the victim was listening to religious music at the time of the strike.  Perhaps God wanted to put her own little spin on the tune.

So, maybe I’ll leave the iPod at home tonight and you should too if you’re going to be running in the rain.  And according to this story, you might want to avoid using your cell phone during a lightning storm too.

Incidentally, the odds of getting struck by lightning can be seen here.