Imagine running 15 miles in sun-scorching 85 degree weather, then arriving at a water station that is OUT of water. And guess what? The good part is that you only have 11.2 miles left! From the Chicago Sun Times article: "Runners toward the back of the pack complained of water tables being flipped over and stacked at mile 2 -- a complaint organizers disputed. In Lincoln Park, runners drank water from a decorative fountain, a participant reported. Other runners said they phoned friends and asked them to bring them water on the route. Some stopped at gas stations to buy their own."

wow.

I've not been very good about updating my blog due to thesising. (Blogger thinks that thesising is not a word - obviously, Walker vocab isn't included in its spellcheck package.) It's overtaking my life. Yesterday, I took the day completely to myself: no thesising! Sunday is one of my favorite days. It's a day which I usually devote to my recreational joys: running, grocery shopping, scrapbooking, etc. I 'took back Sunday' yesterday. I know. The previous sentence was somewhat lame.

Back to running, I want to say a couple of things about my last two long runs.

1) I ran 16.5 miles last Sunday. Jon and I visited Shannon last weekend (yay!) in Rochester. It was so great to see her and finally meet her friends! Anyway, we drove home Sunday morning, so the long run was in the afternoon. I am not used to doing long runs at this time, and I did not eat enough for breakfast and lunch. I planned to do 17 miles. However, I stopped near the end of the run for a car and felt like I was going to pass out from low blood sugar. In retrospect, I ate my normal size of breakfast and lunch which was definitely NOT enough considering that I was doing a long run in the afternoon. I learned my lesson!

2) I ran 18 miles yesterday. The run was hauntingly reminiscent of last year's marathon: I stopped at miles 4 and 9 to use the bathroom. ugh. My one goal for the Philly marathon is to improve on last year's time. I figure that it is an achievable goal because I spent about 20 minutes in or waiting for a porta-potty at the MCM. Yesterday's run does not bode well for cutting out bathroom time.

3) I ran the 18 miles as a 12- and 6- mile loop. The first 12 miles were pretty good. The last 6 sucked! I probably walked for about a minute per mile and averaged about 10:20/mile. Beyond that, I desperately wanted to stop running. Mentally, I just was not there. I'd like to attribute this to the heat, and I hope that this will prove to be the cause of my lack of motivation. I'm proud of myself for sticking with it and finishing despite everything though!

4) I'm praying that the weather quickly transitions to a period of below average temperatures. Jon told me that he read something recently about how the season transitions have been delayed in the past couple of years. As with most climate-related observations, time will tell if the atmosphere is actually taking longer to respond to the earth's tilt. For now, I think that I would prefer snow in Philly next month to hot and humid. knock on wood.