Saturday, July 29, 2006

Hell Must be REALLY Hot

Even a 7 AM start didn't keep today's 14 miles from being incredibly hot and difficult. Hell must be REALLY hot!

Jumping into the middle of the story...I willed this water fountain to not be a mirage at mile 11. I was out of water and struggling from the heat. Almost naked, I was sweating so much my left shoe was squishy with sweat. Humidity must have been over 99% with a temperature of 120F! Ok, maybe it was only 80% with 85F, but I was really heated up.

I ran an out and back on a local bike trail this morning. Running south from one of my favorite starting spots. A nice 9 min/mi pace for the first 4 miles. Didn't need to drink any of my 32 oz of water I was carrying. A lot running in the shade though the humidity was high already. A lovely time up to this point.

As the miles added up, the sun got higher and I got hotter. Started drinking my water and getting sweat in my eyes. Still plenty of shade to find on the trail. At the turn around at 7 miles I was still feeling great. No problems.

My pace was getting slower as I ran in the sun with a 10:12 pace for mile 9 (or was that mile 10?) and my shirt came off. I was really getting hot. My legs were fine, but I couldn't get them to move very fast as it was hard to get a full breath. I was really sweating and out of water.

Water fountain wasn't a mirage! I refilled my bottle, rinsed by cap AND drank some water. The final few miles were a combo of running and walking and running and walking. I could run in the shade just fine, but the sun was over heating me.

In the end, I completed my scheduled 14 miles to finish successfully week #3 of my Goofy Plan.

I'm scheduled to kick off week #4 with a 10 miler tomorrow morning! Weather forecast is for hot weather. :)