One of the side effects of being an endurance athlete is that you have many long hours to just think about stuff. So many ideas float through my head on my swims, rides and runs that seem so brilliant at the time. When I get done I either forget them or they just don’t seem that great. If I only had something to transcribe them while I am out there? SIRI? Today, I had decided to sleep in a bit and then I had to head over to the Emmaus Farmers Market to get our veggies for the week since my wife was out of town for the weekend. Also a round of golf with my old drinkin’ buddies the night before lead to a heady morning. My sentence would be my long LSD run in the middle of a hot day.
I started out and the temps didn’t seem that bad. The clouds were hanging around to shade things a bit. As time went by the sun seemed to strengthen in intensity and I could feel the heat. The course I chose to run was very straight, long and not shaded at all. As I gazed down the long expanses of macadam, I could see the blurriness of the heat rising from the black surface. Road signs began to look like cyclists or other runners and cars looked like Sherman tanks coming at me. I started to take inventory to make sure that the heat was not getting to me. I felt pretty good, but sometimes you question whether that is reality or the heat is just making me euphoric. Fortunately, I wore my Fuel Belt and I slowed down and took in some fluids. I confirmed that I was feeling as good as I thought I did and then continued on.
I could sense the people driving by me in their A/C-cooled vehicles were saying look at that idiot running in weather like this. No different than what they say when I am running or riding in a torrential downpour either I guess. It never seems as bad when you are out in it than when you are sitting in a car experiencing it from afar. It is one of those things that only the endurance athlete can relate to. My run was only 1:15 today, but it is important to keep yourself in check when the conditions are less than optimal. Make sure that you bring adequate hydration or plan your route to stop somewhere that has water. Take inventory of how you feel and don’t push yourself too hard. You don’t want to have any incident when you are out far from getting help or assistance. The extra hour of sleep was not really worth dealing with that heat anyway.
