How Many Miles?

(Sleep comes and keeps me from posting these on the actual day we run. Monday, August 27th)

It was storming for this past Saturday's long run, so the fourteen miles waiting until Sunday. Unfortunately, the storm brought heat and humidity with it. Not only was the fourteen miles a hot mess, literally, so was this mornings run. Was I crazy to even attempt to run ten miles the day after fourteen? Well, yeah, but I am running a marathon.

Ten miles means an early morning to make sure that we can get them all in and have time to shower. The shower seems important. When I woke up, a little before my alarm, I let Henri out to see how uncomfortable it was, if it was going to be okay to take Henri with me. It felt surprisingly cool, much better than Sunday morning, so we geared up to go.

Just a half an hour later, it didn't really feel that cool anymore. Despite the run the day before, my body was okay with the running. Henri was also okay with the running. I was trying to slow us down a little, both because of the heat and to survive the ten miles. I was battling mind over body, not sure which to believe. While I knew we could run the miles, I wasn't sure if it was the safest decision. As miserable as I felt, I knew Henri had to feel worse. No amount of marathon training is worth Henri, or myself for that matter, getting sick or dehydrated. I finally gave in and after mile three, we started walking.

As we cooled down, I contemplated what to do next. We would walk a mile, but then what? Run the last mile home bringing us to five miles? The sun started to come out and started to break up the thickness in the air. As we started our run home, we were feeling much better, so I decided we would do seven, which is what we are supposed to do on Wednesday.

As we hit the final stretch home, Henri was really moving. He even ran past the turn into the subdivision, so I recalculated and planned on finishing with eight. Well, I can't say that I'm sorry about that decision, but that last mile took us out of the breeze and it was a struggle for me to keep going. I really do just wither away in heat and sun. So, I relied on my Henri to keep me moving all the way home.

We made it, and only two miles short of the distance planned. If I had been alone, I probably would have pushed through the last two miles, but the back to back runs was probably a good amount of marathon training for the day. I could also have attempted the last two this afternoon/evening, but it's really just not worth it. I will still be running a lot of miles this week with another twenty miler this weekend. Despite the ickyness of this run, it was a good run, with plenty of training in mental and physical stamina.