Ahhhhh, it's HOT!
and HUMID
Those were my first thoughts yesterday as I woke up.
It was, in fact, both hot and disgustingly humid outside. At 10am it was 95 degrees with 100% humidity. Ew. I received two phone calls telling me that if I didn't feel up to running the torch, I didn't have to. No one expected us to die outside. However, my competitive nature refused to let me back down, so at 8:30, I woke up and started getting ready for the run.
I made myself some toast with peanut butter, stocked the fridge with 3 of my water bottles (for when I got home) and filled my camel bak water bottle to go with me. I hydrated as much as I could the night before and again throughout the morning. I was at the police station by 10:15 where I met up with some of the officers who were running (I was the only non-law enforcement/civil servant on the running list. Yay me!) There were about 8 police officers/SWAT members (cause that's not intimidating at ALL), 2 firemen and the 2 Special Olympic athletes from my hometown. I had warned them that I was a slow runner and they said I should be fine and that if I got tired I could fall back to one of the 3 cars/trucks following us. (Any way I can get that for my half in October? haha)
At 11am, the torch came into town, was passed off and we took off. Apparently my definition of slow and other people's definition are EXTREMELY different. They kept up a 10min/mile pace. I can do that.... for about 1.5 miles before my body goes "What the hell do you think you're doing?" But in 98 degree weather, it just laughed and then decided it was done. I ran the first mile pretty well. I was in the back and perfectly fine with it. But as the mileage increased, so did the space between myself and the rest of the pack. Eventually there was too big of a gap so the truck following us pulled up next to me and made me hop on the runner bar so they could catch me up to the pack. This happened a few times.
Also, did I happen to mention that this route was ALL hills? About 5 monster hills to be exact. I managed to make it up 2 of them- the first and the last. I did run the downhills though and most of the straightaway's (until I started slowing my pace down too much again and had to be picked back up on the truck). In the end, I wasn't the only one who had to fall back to a car- a few people did. Some got out and got back in a couple times like I did, some got in and stayed in. The heat was killer and the hills were making it even worse. I am proud to say that I got out about 0.3miles before the end and ran up the last hill with the group. I sweated through my shirt (and 2 hours later when I finally got home, it was still completely soaked).
It was a great day and although I didn't do as well as I had hoped- I did much better than I expected. I also was interviewed by the newspaper (I'm so a celebrity!). I was quoted in the article and if you look to the bottom of the photo where everyone's feet are, you can sorta see my neon pink sneakers way in the back (towards the left of center).
Yay for stand out colors haha!
