Hi, I’m back, and hope to be writing more about my running and fitness activities as I continue my quest to run marathons in all 50 states, and maintain a level of health and fitness that allows me to do so!
I currently have 13 states completed, and my plan to get there is essentially to run 3 marathons per year for the next 13 years. At my current age of 47, I would finish at a still reasonable age of 60. So far this year I just have one new state, Virginia, when I ran Shamrock Marathon back in March.
Planning my next marathon
My interest for my next marathon was to join one of the 50 States Marathon Club reunion marathons, and the upcoming options are Maine Marathon in Portland on Sept 30, or Kansas City Marathon on Oct 20.
Of course I’d much rather run the KC Marathon because it would provide me an additional 3 weeks of training in cooler weather, but unfortunately I have a commitment to travel to Orlando with my wife at that same time, so Maine Marathon it is.
Humidity has been a challenge
An ongoing problem this summer is that it has been pretty brutal in terms of the humidity. My last long run was 12.5 miles on June 25, but I have not been able to do one since. First I was away in Jacksonville from July 12 to July 22, and while I ran 4 times while I was out there, they were all struggles with the hot weather.
For some of you the hot weather is not a problem, and in fact I met a couple of experienced runnings at races over the last week that ran PR’s in the humid conditions. Probably it is my weight, which is a tad too high, that creates this limitation, but my body just doesn’t do well in the hot weather.
Since getting back to New York, the humidity here has been on the rough side, with dewpoints generally in the upper 60’s and often times over 70, which for me makes a short run hard, but is brutal for a long run. The only break in the humidity was last Sunday July 29, where the dewpoint was actually in the 50’s, but that day I had family plans I couldn’t move and couldn’t run long.
At this point, I’m starting to panic because the Maine Marathon is 8 weeks away, I’ve not done a long run in 6 weeks, and my longest run in the past month is only 8 miles. I’m happy with the number of times I’ve gotten out there, with 12 runs in July, but the distance running hasn’t been there with just 57.7 miles in that month, under 5 miles per run.
The other limitation I have right now is that I’m going to Houston on Wednesday for the weekend, so next weekend I won’t be able to run long either.
Tried, and failed, to run long
So, out of desperation, last night I decided I needed to give it a try, and run long. On the plus side, the humidity was down a bit as the dewpoint was in the mid 60’s, but the challenge is that it was hot hot hot, with the air temperature at 90 degrees when I headed out at 5:30pm.
My plan was to run 15 miles, starting out in the East Village, heading down to and over the Manhattan Bridge, then up to the 59th St Bridge back to Manhattan, then head uptown a mile or so before returning to the East Village, to get to around 15 miles. I knew it was an aggressive plan and I knew I had a high chance of failure. So I was not at all surprised when I simply wilted from the hot weather and the sun in mile 4!
You can see the run details here. I did great for the first few miles, I was carrying water and made sure to stop and drink at a regular basis, and I made it all the way up the Manhattan Bridge without stopping, but the bridge took it’s toll, and then long stretches of Flushing Ave and Kent Ave were still in the sun, and seemingly uphill, and mentally I had a hard time. So I started taking walk breaks, and it was clear that there was no way I’d be running 15 miles. So I cut my losses, stopped at 5.4 miles or so near the Williamsburg Bridge, and walked 2.5 miles over the bridge and back to the East Village.
The photo at the top of the post is one I took from the Manhattan Bridge, in July 2010, of the sunrise from the pedestrian path on the south side of the bridge.
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I may be beaten down, but I’m not defeated. I know I’m in better shape than the guy last year (me!) who ran a 2 hour half marathon in November, so the weather will cool eventually, and I’ll be able to get the long runs done, and get faster, and I still have 7+ weeks to get a few long runs in before the Maine Marathon.
On the plus side, since I ran less than 6 miles Sunday night, I’ll be able to join Van Cortlandt Track Club for the track speed session on Tuesday before I go away, which is I think is a really good workout for the hot weather – short bursts of speed vs a stamina workout.
If you are also suffering in this hot weather, I hope you figured out how to get your run in!
