Saturday, July 01, 2006

First day running in the sauna...I mean Illinois

I'm in Illinois visiting my brother, sister-in-law, and my 2-1/2 year old niece. I don't get to see them very often, so when I visit I want to spend at least 4-5 days. I'm here for a week this time. Yippee!

I started out thinking that I'd get up early, before Spencer, and run. Yeah, that doesn't work out so well with a little one who gets up between 6:30 and 7:00. Okay, I'll run during her nap, no problem. So nap time comes and I get changed and head out for the long run. This won't be too bad....except for the 90 degree heat and 90 percent humidity!

I'm not really sure where to head, but decide to chance running down a 2 lane black top road past the high school. Nice choice. A little over a mile from my brother's house I cross over a freeway and right there on the side of the road is a little park with a running/biking trail. Cool! I check it out and see that there is a 5 mile trail! Perfect, 5 miles of trail, roughly 2 miles round trip to get there and I'm at my 7 miles. Easier said than done! Ugh, it is so incredibly humid I can't believe it. My GPS conked out for a little stretch and I think I missed one of the loops on the trail. I'm figuring I did a bit under 7 miles. Total time 1:25. This was a really hard run for me. I think it's due to many errors which added up to a crappy run: traveling the day before, leaving me dehydrated to start with; getting up pretty early; not eating lunch before running; not carrying enough water. Add in the heat and humidity and it's no wonder I was struggling and feeling like I had heat stroke. This experience has made me very glad I am not training for the Maui marathon. Of course, if I was this weather would be perfect training!

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