The weather gets better

Since Friday, I have heard the following descriptors used with regard to the weather:

'Gorgeous.'
'Perfect.'
'Wonderful.'

Allow me to point out that, in fact, it is still in the upper 80s during the day.  However, the humidity and high dew points have dropped, which does make a considerable difference.  Which is to say that the humidity still starts over 80% in the morning, but becomes more tolerable as the day goes on.  In fact, as I write this around 2pm, the humidity is below 35%, which means now there is a danger of forest fires.  Seriously.  This is a 'red flag' alert by the National Weather Service due to the low humidity.

But I am not complaining.  It was much nicer for running this morning.  Maybe not perfect, but awfully good.  Almost winter conditions -- oh, why am I pretending?  These are basically winter conditions.  Unfortunately, I got going a little too fast as a result, particularly around miles 3-7.  Today was 10 miles, incidentally.  As a result, miles 7-10 were much more of a challenge than maybe they needed to be.  But that's okay.  The key thing is that I finished.

Also, I could have done without the steep-grade hill around mile 8.5.  It's Florida.  How are there suddenly steep-grade hills?

When I was about half-way through mile 8, I started craving green iced tea in a huge way.  This is new and it suggests that maybe the time has come to rethink my hydrating strategies -- not that I would take green tea.  When I trained for the half marathon before, my trusty water bottle that has a convenient strap for holding it in my hand did the job just fine.  However, I am starting to think that I need more than simply one water bottle's worth of stuff.  Plus I am going to have to come up with a plan to stash those jelly beans for athletes or whatever I settle on using during the marathon.  Unfortunately, many of the options that you have for stashing such things are called fuel belts and they look, essentially, like fanny packs.  Running is not a time to look fashionable, as I well know.  And anyway, it is probably time to get something at least.

I was in the golf course neighborhood today, which was considerably more subdued in Halloween decorations.  Maybe they will pick it up closer to the event.

I have to say that the 10 miles felt like an Achievement.  I'm not sure why because it's not even half-way through the marathon distance (13.1), but still, it felt good.  And while I think that I could have been wiser in my strategy, I did still manage to finish, even with a very slight bit of oomph at the end.  I don't feel like I could do a marathon right now, but that's okay because I don't have to do one for another two months.  Until then, I need to focus on training consistently and things will be fine.  Today might not have felt good (particularly around mile 8.5, which as you probably figured out was the challenge portion), but some of it did.  Next week is 12 miles, which will be even more challenging because those will be Californian ones.