Sometimes I really hate you, Florida

It's official: it got hot again.  Record-breaking heat, in fact.  Today it got up to 91F in Tampa.  That would be summer weather, except that it is very slightly less humid.  But not really.

This is just unfair.  It's a taper week for me, meaning that my mileage is spread out over 4 days of shorter runs.  I was really looking forward to this because shorter runs generally feel much faster than normal.  In fact, today's run was only 4 miles.  Can you imagine?  I ran three times that plus two more miles on Sunday.

Instead, 4 miles turned out to be very painful indeed because it got hot again.  BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

(I mean, I guess it could be worse since up north it is snowing and everything.  But I don't care because I feel like whining about my weather situation.)

Anyway, unable to bear the thought of running in summer morning conditions, I decided to take a gamble on the weather and go for the nighttime instead.  Of course, this also added the challenge of running before it got dark since the sun now goes down at 5pm or something.  Okay, not really.  The sun never goes down at 5pm here.  I'm thinking back to Boston.  But it does go down much earlier and by the time I was wrapping up the run at 7:30pm-ish, it was definitely dark.

Meh, no alligators crawled out of the darkened sewer and got me, so whatever.

(If you're curious, yes, I was traumatized by Stephen King's It at an impressionable age).

It was still not quite at the 160 threshold of ick.  But again, it was far too close to the 150 threshold of ick, perhaps even surpassing it on the way to 160.  Come on!  It's late October!  This should be over by now.

Oh, the dew point?  Lower 70s.  To cite my favorite Wikipedia page on the topic yet again, 'Very humid, quite uncomfortable.'  And this was at 6pm today. 

It could have been worse, though.  This morning the dew point was 72F, the humidity 90%, and the temperature 75F, which means that yes, we did surpass the threshold of ick.  So at least I made the right decision by waiting.  I guess.  But I'm still too sweaty and tired. 

Blech.  Just blech.

Halloween is coming

Today I braved the icky conditions and decided to run in the morning anyway.  The Office and 30 Rock are on later, after all.  As I was running, I noticed that my time was very slow.  Like, horrible long run of a few weeks ago slow.  I got frustrated with myself, wondering why my time was so bad and wanting to be a better runner and all kinds of other things that I had plenty of time to contemplate since it was a 7-mile run.  Then when I checked the weather, I realized that, in fact, it had been over the ick threshold for the whole time.  Lesson learned: slow running -- particularly when you have been training consistently -- is probably the result of disgusting weather.  We're talking temperature in the 70s with humidity of 90% icky.  At least some of it was overcast.

The run took place in parts of Stephanie and David's neighborhood (still did not see Stephanie), then I came back over to my part and finished there.  It would seem that several of Stephanie and David's neighbors have put up Halloween decorations already.  Also, it would seem that some of them are pretty into Halloween decorations.  Here are some of the highlights that I saw today:

These two photos are of different parts from the same house.

When I ran by this morning, the ghost was deflated.

Apparently, you do not want to cross into this yard.  They have ghosts guarding it.

One of the houses was particularly ready for Halloween.  All of the remaining photos were from the same place:

This is at the start of the street.  Makes me wonder if more people usually dress up their houses.

Fact: most of the houses that had Halloween decorations up already also had fancy mailboxes.

I feel like 'spooky' and 'palm tree' just don't blend, somehow.

This is the spooky graveyard.

These inflatable things are popular.  I feel like this one is more Thanksgiving-themed, though.

I wonder how the bears feel about being usurped during Halloween.

Zoo Run Run

This morning, I ran the 'Zoo Run Run' 5k at the Lowry Park Zoo.  I did a zoo run a few years ago as part of an arthritis fundraiser and enjoyed the experience.  Today's run was less fun, first off because there were probably 2000 people there.  No joke.  Bib numbers went up to 2000 and I didn't see any gaps in the numbers.  Plus they had registration on the day of the race.  Then everyone had to get chip timers...which seemed kind of dumb because there is no possible way that anyone is setting any personal records at a zoo run due to the fact that there are a lot of curves that one needs to negotiate.  In fact, the whole operation got so convoluted that they had to start the run a few (maybe 10) minutes late.  Then they didn't actually chip time because you didn't step over a chip time mat at the start, only at the finish line -- and there was a delay in the start because the race did get congested.  So I'm not sure what the point was of the chip timers at all.  But I digress.

One major complaint I have with races in Florida: get people to line up according to mile splits!  I've never once seen that happen here.  As a result, you get all kinds of paces out of the gate, which is especially annoying when it is a narrow course as it is at the zoo.  I don't want to take out any other runners, but am sometimes forced to when slow walkers are walking across the course in a group of three or more near the front.  If you are a slow walker, that is great.  I'm thrilled that you are out and exercising.  However, please be at the back of the race or minimally, do not walk three abreast across the whole pathway!  But I digress again.

You remember how the weather was getting better?  Well, it's officially worse again -- and just in time for tomorrow's long run (joy).  It was around the normal ick this morning: 78F, humidity 84%, dew point 73F.  In you're keeping track, yes that is barely across the Threshold of Ick since temp + humidity = more than 160.  It doesn't matter that it was only two over 160.  That is still too much. 

When I hit mile 2, I was annoyed because I wanted to run faster and couldn't.  It is a super irritating feeling!  But something (likely the Threshold of Ick) held me back.  Someday, someday, I will be able to run.  By which I mean, 'in two weeks when I go to California.'  Stay tuned. 

Bad part of California: I've heard that there are hills...

Good part of today's run: the zoo had hills, Florida-style (so not really, but there were inclines and declines).  And I definitely ran them better than the majority of the other people out there.  Nice to know that 'hill training' is paying off, even if I am only equipped for zoo-level hills!