The Heat Is On

One week remains until the Minneapolis Marathon, and after a slack-ass week (really ... I ran exactly 1.2 miles all week, but did some no-impact biking instead, thanks to my blisters), I finally Body Glided my tootsies up and headed out for my final "long" run before the big day. My blister on my little toe is still giving me a lot of attitude. I hope one more week of tapering will allow it to heel over completely; if not, I'm pretty sure duct tape and I will become BFFs during the marathon.

Last night I "practiced" my night-before routine. I ate what I want to eat the night before the marathon, went to bed when I think I should go to bed, and set my alarm for when I should get up to arrive at my starting corral on time. I even had grand visions of driving Downtown, parking in the ramp I want to park in the morning of the race, and doing my 8-miler along the course. This morning, however, my alarm went off and I was too pissed at it to wake up. It's a holiday weekend; my body wants sleep!

I hit snooze for ... oh, I'd say a good hour. I finally decided to turn it off, roll over, and snooze until I wanted to wake up. The problem with this is that I have a (terrible?) habit of sleeping waaaay too late. Pretty soon it was nearing 11a.m., the sun was wilting the plants on my patio, there were no clouds anywhere, and I knew I needed to fit in my last 8-miler in midday heat/sun.

What a terrible idea. Welcoming your body back into running is already kind of a pain, let alone doing it when most people are taking cover from Mr. Sun's intense rays. I ran both Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet instead of heading out to the course, and it was hard -- I forgot how little shade there is along the Greenway and on the lakes. I brought my Amphipod handheld and sucked that thing dry, stopping to refill it four times. Four?! In 8 miles? I'm pretty sure in other countries that's considered water boarding.

I was trying to run my goal pace, but I found that -- even while running a smidge slower -- I slowed to a walk a couple of times, usually when I found shade. At a few points during the run, I was feeling pretty lightheaded and I was covered head to toe in goosebumps?! Are you supposed to get goosebumps when it's close to 90 degrees? I wasn't sure if I was getting heatstroke or if my skin was literally burning off. I saw plenty of other runners out at the same time, and not one of them looked like they were suffering as much as I was. What gives?

With this morning's disappointing and painful run, I can take some solace in that my last long run is out of the way -- until next weekend, anyway. I get to look forward to one final week of tapering, even though this week is 75% resting. I've got two 3-mile runs planned for Monday and Tuesday, but for the rest of this weekend you will not find me working out in this heat. Instead I biked over to Minnehaha Falls and enjoyed the view from a summer perspective. It's much different now than it was when I was there this winter!

Next on the holiday weekend agenda: grilling veggies, drinking beer, and sunning myself at the beach. Happy Memorial Day weekend! :)

8.25mi splits (1:15:49)

1: 9:15

2: 8:51

3: 8:53

4: 9:00

5: 9:05

6: 9:01

7: 9:24

8: 9:53

.25: 2:23

Air Temp: 89F, soooo sunny