One of those times came about 5 miles into my first run at St. George Island, FL, the site of my family vacation. I was scoping out potential running tracks as we drove in. Fortunately, there was a nice track that ran directly in front of the beach-house we were staying in, and it wrapped around with a nice view of the water on the back half. So I started off last Saturday to run my 7 miles, just as my running group back home (FOB 4) was. It was a typical warm, humid coastal Florida day. Of course, while these conditions were typical for coastal Florida, there were not typical of Tulsa, and it felt as though I were swimming from the start. Five miles in, I decided to walk a little, as the humidity was just killing me. I picked it back up again, walked one more time, and finished on a run. The spoils of such a tough run: a dip in the ocean to cool off.
On Monday, I was a little more mentally prepared for the heat and humidity, and I knocked out a little over 5 miles with relative ease. Tuesday, different path, four miles, a little easier.
On Wednesday, I knew I had to take better advantage of my beachfront locale, so Wednesday evening, I left my shoes at the boardwalk and took off down the beach barefoot. I knew my feet would be hurting by the time I finished, but I just could not pass up the opportunity to take a run barefoot in the sand on the Gulf of Mexico. It was pretty dark by the time I reached my turnaround--the island water tower. I checked my Garmin to see how far I had run, intending to run the same distance back in the dark. Sure enough, my Garmin had died. So I turned around and ran blindly back to the boardwalk. One note: because of sea turtle migration, all water-facing house lights were supposed to be turned off at dusk. Obviously, there were no street lights, so my return run was very dark. Fortunately, I had taken note of a few landmarks near the boardwalk, so I knew when I was near. The boardwalk itself was completely hidden by the time I returned, but a quick question to a friendly family helped me find it again (my wife would have been proud).
My feet, especially my toes, were killing me, and when I returned to the beach house, I discovered I had blood blisters on the second toes of each foot. They hurt, but I saw them as a trophy or souvenir of a special run that not a lot of Okies get to take. I ended up mapping the distance in the van the next day: 4 miles.I ended up missing this morning--late night, 4:00 wake up call from my daughter, and the need to get into work early this morning to get caught up (and to blog), but tomorrow, I'll be back on track again. Looking forward to running with the Runner's World group, and specifically, the FOB 4 this coming Saturday.
6-11-09
Distance: 4
6-10-09
Distance: 4.07
Time: 35:25
Avg. Mile Pace: 8.41
6-9-09
Distance: 5.18
Time: 45:40
Avg. Mile Pace: 8:48
6-7-09
Distance: 6.46
Time: 58:25
Avg. Mile Pace: 9:01
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