Apparently, I have almost lost any skills I once had for how to dress in cooler weather. The basic rule that I like to follow is to dress for the finish, not the beginning, because of course you do warm up while you run. But Florida does not really require much thinking in the appropriate dress department. Generally, I just go in shorts and a performance singlet. So when the temperature drops, it now confuses me. I didn't want to overdress, but I also didn't want to freeze at the beginning. I went with shorts, long-sleeve performance shirt, and an actual ballcap. Actual ballcaps are too hot normally, so I figured that it would pay off today. This combo worked pretty well and I didn't feel uncomfortable at any point -- okay, maybe a little cold to start.
The temperature was in the 40s to start, then got into the 60s by the end. In other words: perfect. And the dew point was in the 30s. As much as Florida drives me nuts, the weather during cold fronts is pretty much ideal (how unfortunate that cold fronts are maybe 5% of the year). You get the cold, Arctic wind from up north, but you don't usually feel cold because the sun is still warm. It's pretty easy to cope with these conditions. If you feel cold from the wind, you get the sun to warm you up. And if you feel too warm, you go in the shade or wait for a gust of wind.
As tends to happen in good weather conditions, I am reminded that I actually do not hate running. I know, I've been over this before, but I really do sometimes forget. The weather here is generally very difficult to negotiate for me, no matter what time of day. So when I actually get to run in reasonable conditions, it is a real treat. And I realized something else. I may not be very good at running long distances, but I don't mind running long distances. Especially in good weather. I feel like I've reached a good point mentally where long runs don't actually feel so long and I stay strong through the last part. For instance, I got to 4.5 miles from the end today and felt like the rest was going to be just fine to finish. This is encouraging and a great feeling. The last part wasn't even so bad, overall. Now I just have to remember how those last miles feel when I run the real marathon.
Also, here is hoping for similar weather conditions!
I did have one small freakout today when I checked my time around 6 miles. For some unknown reason, I convinced myself that 8 miles (the halfway point) was around a quarter of the marathon. I started freaking out because I thought that I was running significantly slower than I had anticipated. It took me until somewhere around 12 miles to realize that actually, 8 miles is closer to two-thirds of the way through a marathon. This makes a pretty big difference, as the following fictional comparison demonstrates (fictional because I do not run this fast):
- 1 hour/8 miles in my erroneous first version would result in a 4-hour marathon;
- 1 hour/8 miles would be closer to a 3-hour marathon.
See how that happened? It added a whole hour. Even for this imaginary fast person.
I have one last comment about today's run. When I train, I don't listen to music, but I do sometimes get music in my head. For a while, it was various chamber music of the nineteenth century (I know, I'm a geek); for instance, Schumann's string quartet in A major (op. 41/3) would often be my imagined accompaniment. You don't need to tell me that this is weird, I know already. There is something about the strings all working together in chamber music that I feel works while running. Today, though, I suddenly had Bob Seger's 'Hollywood Nights' burst out of nowhere around mile 5. Random, even though it was on the radio yesterday.
The best moment ever was when I was 2 miles from the end of a long run while training for a half-marathon and Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' started up as if on cue in my head. Seemed appropriate.
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