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| Sunday morning |
I had trouble leaving my comfy bed this morning, and I was still inhabiting a dreamy head space when I landed outside and started to run. I had eaten breakfast and hydrated before I left, and packed a load of new gels (peanut butter flavour!), but the monsters continued to chase me; I felt mentally and emotionally worn out after the first 10 minutes! Pretty weird. Especially when you know you have many, many minutes ahead. Gah.
I crossed the bridge and chose a nice shady route to protect me from the sun. It is a lot harder than normal to run in direct sunlight in the midst of a summer heat wave, even when you're hydrating like mad. Imagine the sun is a giant magnet that uses strong rays to suck the liquids and energy out of you, right through your skin, and deposits them into the atmosphere, leaving you a hollow, sticky mess, like a chocolate Easter bunny left in a microwave oven.
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| Melted milk chocolate (but not a bunny) |
I ran in that shady area for quite a while, enjoying the skin-saving reprieve granted by our tall friends, the trees. But something was missing: water fountains! A full bottle lasts me about 45 minutes in the heat, and I was nearing the bottom of mine when I spotted the silver shininess of what had to be a fountain. I felt a flutter of excitement which quickly extinguished itself when I tried the rusty handle and nothing happened. Gatineau, you have failed me again! I had to give up my dream of continuing on to the Marina. Boo. I had no recourse but to turn around and head in the direction of a fountain I knew (if one can ever truly know a fountain). I arrived at the working fountain about 45 minutes later and drank a hella lot.
Although I felt physically strong and capable during the 30k run, my emotions ran high and low, and of course this roller coaster intensified during the final hour when I was running in hot sunlight and felt incredibly warm and sticky, and just a tad uncomfortable. I felt like crying several times during this run, which is not usual. Even the peanut butter gel did not raise my spirits although it was damn good. A glass of milk and a dab of my mom's jam would have made me feel better!
1 comment:
:( Stupid water-stingy Gatineau!
Wanting to cry during a run isn't good news :(. I suddenly got very emotional just before I got heat exhaustion--I'm not sure if I was so distraught that I was starting to hyperventilate, or the other way around, and since then, an explosive despair out of nowhere has been a sign to stop and get cooled off asap. Just thought I'd mention this because heat exhaustion warnings seem to emphasize physical symptoms and ignore the emotional ones, even though the latter might be more distinctive. True, some runs are simply steadily miserable throughout, and we train to push through a few hours discomfort at a time...just be aware if a sudden crying jag or some other freakishly strong emotion hits you out of the blue.
I hope your next long run goes a lot better!
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