Can You Feel The Heat?

Today was my first "long run" for the half training. A 4 mile run. Can't be too bad, right? Wrong! The high today was 92 degrees, occurring at 3:45pm. Would you like to know what time I ran today?? Oh, around 3:30pm. No, I have not lost my mind, (well, you know...) I have a couple of reasons why I ran so late. First off, I generally try to get my runs in early in the morning. The earlier, the better. However, Shane and I got to talking last night about the trail and his concerns for my safety and I kinda decided that I didn't want to run at 7am. It is rather lonely and deserted on the trail. I could have run later, but Shane had an interview today at 9:30am and that kinda trumps my run. So, I could have run at 10:15 when he came back, but today was registration at the dance studio and they closed at 11am. Therefore, you see my problem. 

So, while we were already out, I decided that if I am going to have to start having accurate mileage no matter where I run, I needed to break down and buy a GPS watch. It's nothing fancy, it doesn't even have a HRM or anything, but it does the job. Well, it will do the job a little better when I can operate it with complete ease.

It's a Soleus GPS 1.0--I would have gotten the pink one, but Shane protested

We also went grocery shopping for the next 2 weeks. This put us home at around 2:30pm and Shane had to be at work at 5pm. So, after a long lecture on dehydration from Shane, I set out to run my 4 miles and get it over with. I really don't want to do any of the long runs on the treadmill if I can help it. The half isn't going to be on a treadmill and I need to stay conditioned to the outside.

Thank God there wasn't much humidity today or I probably would have keeled over! It was hot as HELL!!!!! I stretched and loaded up my belt and got ready. I had the GPS and the HRM on my wrist (yes, I looked like a douche). I hit the start button on them both and took off. Ok, a few minutes in and I realized that the GPS watch was giving no distance readings. Crap!! Then, I realized that there are 2 different start buttons to hit. I was unwilling at that point to go back and start my mileage over, so I'm actually not too sure of just how far I ran today. I'm pretty sure it wasn't completely 4 miles. From the point I started it to the turn around and stop, it read 3.51miles. It was probably closer to 3.7 and that was fine by me!! I think I would have passed out if I had gone the full 4. I know that the next thing I need to add to my running gear is a water transport system. I won't lie and say that I ran a lot of those 3.7 miles, it was probably closer to a mile or mile and a half run and I walked the rest. Even my fingers were sweating! I was a little concerned because toward the end, my fingers started swelling and turning red. I have no idea what caused it, but I definitely did not like it. I was super happy to get home and into the shower, not to mention down a Gatorade. 

I hope I don't have to run in the heat like that again and I really miss my running buddy. I never thought about how much safer I feel with someone else there.