For a wide variety of reasons, I couldn't get out this morning. Chief amongst those reasons was that the weather was unpredictable. There is a disturbance in the Gulf (why yes, I did see some of the Star Wars marathon on Spike this weekend), creating a tropical storm over on the Texas side -- Tropical Storm Hermine to be exact. Now, while we are far from Texas, there is still enough of an overall disturbance to make weather here dicey. It was rainy this morning, then overcast after that. Plus I had a few things that needed taking care of first thing. End result: no run this morning.
I was hoping to wait until ~7pm, then go, but every time I checked the weather, this seemed like a bad idea. Both Accuweather and Weather.com indicated that the longer I waited, the worse the chances of a possibly violent storm. Then the skies appeared to be getting overcast around 5pm. I decided that rather than gambling by waiting, I would head out and bear the brunt of the hot. This was probably the right move since when I got home, there was a warning for western Hillsborough county (I'm in the eastern part) that there were violent storms with a funnel cloud spotted. Pass. Although I did locate a convenient shelter from storms along my route today, yay.
And hot it was. The sun envelops you like it just isn't going to let go. Like Dementors in Harry Potter, only with warmth instead of cold and no Lupin to hand you chocolate. Things were almost manageable in the shade, but Mr. Florida Sun was strong. Not to mention that because the sun was still relatively high in the sky, there was less shade overall. Accuweather seems to think that the heat index was around 96F and while I sometimes think that they exaggerate, it was not exactly ideal at the start of the run. However, I persevered and that is what matters.
Sometimes I wonder if I would be a faster runner if I had stayed up north and continued to run. I probably would be. But I think I'm a tougher runner from being down here.
So much of this was the bad. But there were a few good moments too. As I was driving over to the golf course neighborhood, I heard the piano exit from 'Layla,' which is one of my favorite things right now. I must be on some weird Scorsese kick because as I write this, I am listening to the final number from the St. Matthew Passion, which features prominently in Scorsese's Casino. Yeah, it was sunny today, hence the random.
Anyway, I also had an insight as I ran. I was going along a sunny part and thinking about how I just had to grit through this -- YES, I did just turn 'grit' into a verb with an unusual usage! Then I started thinking about how in yoga you are supposed to be in the moment and not worry about the future. However, that is basically the opposite of what I generally do when running. I am constantly thinking about the future. Am I going too fast? Could I go faster? How much further do I have to go? Will my current route cover that or will I have to add on (or find a shortcut)? Where is the next stretch of shade? Can I beat the garbage truck home? You get the idea. For me, running is all about not being in the moment, it is about being in the next moment. No idea if this is a good strategy, just something that went through my head around mile 3 while running in the Florida sun.
When I got back, I learned something interesting: according to my phone, I have run 97 miles so far training for my marathon. But actually, I have run more. The 5k Salem run isn't included in there, so that puts me at 100 miles, plus there are the two hour-long runs that I did the past couple of weeks. I am over 100 miles! This seems cool for some reason.
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