Early Bird Gets The Worm...

...and some much needed heat relief! Cubbie and I are back full force this week. her job has kept her away so we have been training on our own over the last few weeks, squeezing in a run together every now and then. We were overdue for a long run so decided to meet at 5:30AM(did you know 5:30 comes twice a day?) and run for an hour and a half. What a diffence in temperature! According to the Weather Channel it was 70 degrees with a 71% humidity when I left the house at 5:15. We meet and began our run and it was just flat out wonderful outside. There was a slight breeze coming in off of the marsh and I could not be happier! Today was a day of many firsts.

Yesterday I purchased a new water bottle with the handheld carrying strap. I was very apprehensive about lugging this thing with me for the entire run but my last few long runs have been such a struggle dealing with dehydration that I HAVE to find a solution. Honestly, I think I would rather run with a belt but this was cheaper and I want to explore my options. I plunked down ten dollars and bought a new bottle. While I was at Fleet Feet Sports I decided it was time to upgrade my running head gear and I invested in a visor, I hear it is better than a hat in releasing the heat off of your head. Third purchase from Fleet Feet was some different flavors of GU for me and Cubbie to try.

Armed with my new purchases and excited to show Cubbie my stuff, we began our morning run. Started off at the usual slow pace, I quickly noticed my breathing was a little off and this "thing" in my hand was really a pain..."Is this how it is going to be for the next hour and a half?" After about ten minutes we settled into a comfortable pace and my breathing evened out. It was very surreal to be running at this time of the morning. It was SO quiet, there was no movement. The sun wasn't supposed to start rising until about halfway through our run. There were deer everywhere! I was really digging it! Cubbie wasn't impressed, she works out there and sees the deer all the time, but even she gushed when a deer raced across the road clumbsily followed by a little baby bambi.

Thirty minutes in I felt great and decided to take my first GU. Last long run I waited until 45 minutes and that long run turned out to be a big FAIL. "Orange Burst" as a flavor is okay, not at the top of the list for me. We were moving right along discussing the problems of the world and before I knew it we had been on the road for an hour, I took my second GU, "Strawberry-Banana" and decided it ranks at the top with "Tri Berry" We agreed to take a turn in the route that adds about 3/4 of a mile onto our run, this is the route we first ran out here, at a time of 1:40. Something happened at about 1:15 into the run. We didn't talk about it beforehand and we didn't talk about it while it was happening but simultaniously we both put the hammer down and really started killing it! I don't know if she started pushing and I pushed back or if I started pushing and she pushed back, before we knew it we were really moving! At the end of aour long run?!?! This makes no sense, LOL. 2 out of my 3 last long runs I bailed mid run and today we are pushing the pace. We finished the run at 1:28 and I quickly realized that the first time we ran this course, two months ago, it took 1:40. 12 minutes? How did we find 12 minutes on that course.

Here's how:
I had a 22oz water bottle with me that I took sips from during my run.(And totally LOVE now!)

Consumed 2 GU's, one every thirty minutes.

It was 72 degrees out, not 85 degrees, when we started and 75 degrees when we finished, not 90 degrees.

I LOVE RUNNING AGAIN!

I had beaten myself up so much over my unsucessful long runs that I had really begun to question my sanity over the decision to run this marathon. "Maybe I am just a 5K guy..."

Nope, I will soon enough be a marathoner, God willing. One foot in front of the other, one step at a time.