Hello Florida Humidity!

This past weekend saw me in Florida to celebrate my Grandfather turning 90 years old! I had a fun time with my family and it was good to see everyone. My cousin Erik and his family even made a surprise visit with their little boy Will.

But what about the running? Where would I run, what about water and Gatorade? Before I got there my dad and my Uncle Ken mapped out a route that I would run out in the country. I got up early on Sunday morning to try and beat the heat. The sun didn't rise until about 7am however and I didn't want to be running in the pitch black solo on these country roads so I didn't get started until about 6:20am. My dad and stepmom would leap frog me in the car. They would go about a 1/2 mile ahead and wait and then after I passed do the same thing. It was great and I felt like I had a entourage following me. They would hand out water and Gatorade out the window.

Right at the start of the run there were some roosters roostering and I looked at them and I said, "Well it's obvious we aren't in Chicago anymore". The run was supposed to be 17 miles with 14 at Marathon Race Pace. Due to the heat and the fact that by the time I got to 15 miles I was soaked through all my clothes I decided to cut it off at 15 miles. Good decision on my part because when I looked up at mile 15 there was a giant about 1 mile long hill ahead of me. Could I have finished the full run...I think so. But I didn't think it was worth it to make myself sick as I was already feeling really dehydrated even though I had been drinking water/Gatorade. Had I been in Chicago on the flat and in the cool I think there wouldn't have been a problem to get through the run fully.

I would like my splits for the race to be at 8:15. That is a 3:35 marathon. So let's see how I did :

1. 9:06
2. 9:03
3. 8:52 (Water)
   
4. 8:15
5. 8:19
6. 8:14 (Gatorade)
   
7. 8:03
8. 8:06
9. 8:07 (Water)
   
10. 8:01
11. 8:37 (Gu)
12. 8:07
13. 8:43 (Elongated Gatorade)
14. 8:11
15. 8:36

First thing to note is that the miles that were all at 8:05ish felt really comfortable. I didn't feel like I was pushing that hard and my stepmom took a video of me and I looked really comfortable running. Maybe not that comfortable since I ended up cutting the run short though....but still felt good.

Second, when I had a water or Gatorade stop I didn't lose any time at all when I was feeling ok. This was good because I wanted to test my race method and see how much time I would lose. So I grabbed the water or Gatorade walked a few steps to drink it without dumping it down my shirt and carried on. Nice to see that should work without too many problems.

Third, the Gu stop looked to take about 30 seconds longer than the miles around it. Same method as the other stops, I stop and walk to take it and continue on my way.

You can see the fatigue at the end of the run with the elongated Gatorade stop and then the last mile at 8:36 and of course stopping a few miles early. I am pretty sure that it's not from the previous miles, but rather just the heat and humidity getting to me (It was 80+ degrees at the start of the run). Anyways, I looked back to last year when I did this run and I didn't make it anywhere. So I'm really happy with how it went and feeling more and more confident about the marathon pace I am hoping to keep.

Jason did really good on his run in the city doing all 17 miles and keeping all miles between 8:10-8:20. Yay!