Brutally, Epically Hot

Yesterday we made the long trip home for our week long family vacation. Drive, fly, connect, fly again, home, laundry.... Facing me the whole time was knowing I had a 14 miler to do today. Added to that was the knowledge that we are facing heat advisories and the overnight LOW was 78 degrees. I worked hard to stay out of my head, but yeah, I was worried.

Two friends from my running group have also signed up for the Twin Cities Marathon. It was those two I was to meet this morning at 5:30am for our 14 miler - the longest run I've done in more than 12 years. I packed sports drinks into a cooler, ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and looked out our steamy windows. It was 80 degrees at 5:30am. 86% humidity.

Our planned route was broken into 3 chunks. The first - our "usual" 7 miler that takes us by a nice water fountain at the halfway mark. Our second - an easy 3 mile loop. Our third - out and back 4 miles on the trail, a rail to trail conversion that would give us a gentle climb on the way back to mimic the elevation at the end of the TCM.

About 4 miles into our run we lost one of our training partners. It was too hot and she just wasn't feeling it. We finished the 7 miler just at a 10 min/mile pace. We were pouring sweat. Bathroom break, prolonged water stop and a surprise encounter with my mother who had been out walking on the trail and we set off for our 3 mile loop. I felt refreshed from our break and the Sport Beans I took at my car - those miles passed quickly - the quickest of the morning. We brought it back into our cars for another drink and then headed out for the last leg of our difficult journey.

By this time the sun was high and hot. I was uncomfortably warm, my clothes were drenched. We planned an out and back - 2 miles out, 2 miles back. The first two miles were sluggish, we were quiet, struggling. We stopped at our turnaround point and checked our watches... We were still averaging a 10:15/mile pace.

It is difficult to describe how hard those final two miles were to cover. We were on a gradual uphill, overheated and out of gas. We walked once for about 30-45 seconds and passed words of encouragement back and forth. As we shuffled along.

"Run through it!"

"Just 5 times around the track!"

"Just run this section - it's short, it's straight, it's flat."

Oh and yeah, there was some moaning.

We kept an eagle eye on our watches and walked the instant the mileage turned to 14.

14 miles - 10:20 average pace.

This is what my car temperature gauge said when we were done: 90 degrees.

How on Earth will I run 12.2 more?