Hot 6.5 Mile Run
Today was a hot one. It hit 91 this afternoon, two degrees shy of the record set in 2005. When I left the office in Amherst just after 5, the truck thermometer read 92. A couple miles away along the Niagara River, it dropped to (a mere) 84. Back at my apartment a mile or so off the river, it climbed back up to 88. I find it amazing how much of affect the river can have. I waited until 8:30 to head out for a run, but it was still around 82 at that time. It didn’t drop any by the time I got back just shy of 9:30.
I did one of my tougher runs today - down Delaware Ave past Chippewa Street to Niagara Square, back & some zig zagging around the apartment for a total of 6.5 miles. It’s full of hills the entire way, something which I had shied away from when I was training for the 2005 Rochester Half Marathon, but now conscientiously seek. My watch indicated I averaged 8:14 minute miles across the run (53:33). I was plenty happy with that pace in this weather and had nothing more left in me at the end.
As it was hot out, I made sure to weigh myself before and after I left. The scale said I’d lost a pound from the run. I was a little puzzled at first - believe it or not, that actually felt like it was a little too little. A while later I realized I’d drank two 20 ounce bottles of Gatorade after I got back - I’d really lost 2.5 pounds!