Tamara’s Post – A Steamy, Sunny, Sweaty Run…

After months of not finding the time to blog – I’m back…again. It’s been a whirlwind few months, but I’m hopeful that things are settling down and I can catch up with posting – I like getting my running thoughts out.

With a high of 103 predicted for today, we decided to hit the road early. My sister and her 2 children are here visiting from Maine so I gave Samantha the instructions last night to wake them up if she awoke while we were still running. The house was quiet when we left – until I realized I forgot my sunglasses and startled the dogs which made them bark as I trampled back inside…I heard some mumbling from Samantha’s room…and then silence – whew, let’s get out of here. It was almost 6:30am and I could see the sun had risen past the trees already. Ugh – Jeff was right, the earlier the better – it was gonna be hot! As we sprinted down the driveway I noticed the sun rising higher and higher in the sky with every step we took…we can’t outrun it. We didn’t talk much on the run, we actually didn’t talk at all. We ran. Just having Jeff beside me keeps me going…and as he sped ahead of me with each rolling hill I kept my focus and tried to catch him. It’s like a game. Fortunately we had some shade from the tall trees on the back roads and at one point the shade came from very tall corn stalks sitting high on a knoll to our left – ahhhh…thank you corn! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had the opportunity and ambition to run outside in the heat and I can’t say enough how much I hate it. The steam seemed to rise from the foliage and leave the air stagnant making it difficult to breathe. I could hear Jeff’s quick breathing – from the steamy air or from the pace, I didn’t know. We press on and with the descent down into each little gully in the shade I seem to linger a bit in the coolness – or at least it seemed cooler. As we round the corner and head down the 1 mile straightaway that leads to the road we live on, I notice the cell tower wwwwaaaayyyyy in the distance…jeez, it looks like someone moved it further away today! I run 50 or so feet behind Jeff for the reminder of the run – pretending I’m in a race and trying to catch him – which I never do. It was a hot, steamy 6.2 miles. As we enter the house we realize no one is awake yet, no surprises there…it feels great to get a nice run in so early in the morning – I’m glad we went!