Yesterday was my running group's (the fantastic East Nasty running group) last long run prior to the Country Music Half Marathon. The plan was to run 14 miles, most of which on the actual race course. Now, considering I hadn't run further than 5 miles since the Shamrock Half Marathon a few weeks back, I was a little concerned about the distance. I had also had decent bike / swim workout the day prior my legs were a little tired. But knowing I'd be running with Heidi, Rhonda and Polly, I figured I'd be OK.
Unfortunately, what I didn't plan on was the heat. Nashville happened to have record-breaking heat over the last weekend. When we showed up at Bongo Java to run at 8AM on Sunday morning, it was already 75 degrees. I'd dressed accordingly - tank top and running skirt - and also brought my water bottle. East Nasty had a water cooler out along the course that we'd pass twice during the run where we could fill-up our bottles if necessary. In theory, this should have been enough. In theory...
So we started out. All of us (the aforementioned Heidi, Rhonda and Polly) were planning on taking it easy and just getting through the run. Knowing how hot it was and how long we had to go, we started at a pretty conservative pace. I think, while we were hot, we were doing OK until we came upon the water cooler at the Roundabout near Music Row (that's a traffic circle for you Northerners). That water cooler had kind of been a carrot for me during the run - my reward of a little rest and some cold water. Knowing it was there, I had paced my drinking so I'd have an empty bottle to fill up. Problem was - someone had dumped out the water before we got there. (Sidebar - We're assuming that it wasn't someone in our group who dumped it, because that's really just not cool. Plus, we found out later the cooler had been stolen.) I can't tell you how mad we were the water had been dumped. By this time, it was at least 80 and would creep up to almost 90 throughout the day. We needed that water!
So we slogged on. After about a mile, as if a mirage, we saw a table with some very nice women and a water cooler. Like angels from heaven, the employees from lululemon (a fabulous running/yoga store if you've never been there), were out manning a water stop for the East Nasty training run. I can't tell you how thankful we were to see them.
Now properly rehydrated, we went along our merry way. Well, not so merrily actually, but we went along. By now it was hot. REALLY hot. And we weren't in much shade. We stopped at a Circle K to stock up on supplies (YAY for debit cards!!) and cool off a bit before facing the heat again. I'm thinking around mile 6 is when I felt my first heat-related chill. NOT a good sign and we weren't even half-way done yet.
This was about the time when we hit Granny White Road. This is a tough section of the course as it's hilly. This is also where we started to walk. A lot. We started a plan of trying to run down the hills while walking up them. We've run worse hills, but yesterday Granny White just seemed endless. I have no doubt that if the weather was cooler, the hills would have been kinder.
After another stop at a different convenience store and a pass past the lululemon water stop, we were finally on the home stretch. I know we were all pretty miserable by now. For me personally, I was just trying to figure out how to make it back without passing out. We walked more than ran the last 3 miles, but I didn't care. All I was focused on was getting back to Bongo Java and sitting in air-conditioning for a long, long while. I had never been more relieved to finish a run.
Many thanks to Heidi, Polly, Rhonda, Julia, Sara and Chuck for "running" with me yesterday. And a HUGE thank you to the ladies from lululemon. They were truly lifesavers.
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