For Whom the Dogs Bark

73F, 94% humidity at start, 83F, 92% at end.  Pretty good running weather, at least until the sun came up.  18.76 miles in 3:13:25, average pace 10:19.  This was a weird run.  I left the house and ran to the Y, a little over 7 miles.  I had no water stations so I was going to take a backpack and a handheld.  Fixed it up and put it in the fridge overnight, but when I put the pack on this morning it felt heavy, so I left it and just took the handheld.  Seemed like a good idea at the time, and that arrangement worked fine on the way to Y.  I ran this part at about 10:30 to 11:00 pace.  There must have been 150 runners milling around when I got to the Y, getting instructions, doing warmups, etc.  Turns out there was a 2-mile group and a 4-mile group.  When I asked somebody he said the 4-milers were "back there", as if they were an elite group or something.  Finally they came up and we started at about 7:15 in the morning, already pretty late.  A man and a woman were running out ahead, so I sped up, eventually caught them toward the end then just tucked in behind, didn't want to make a spectacle out of myself as the newbie.  I ran it hard for me, low 8s and high 7s, about MP minus 30 seconds overall, but speeding up throughout, heart rate up to 181 at the end.    I could have taken it slow like the rest of the run, but that wouldn't have been interesting -- I am sure there are several runners in this group with faster marathon times than me, but I can't figure out why experienced runners would do a 4-mile run on Saturday morning and take it slow on top of that, unless there are special circumstances.

After the run there was a lecture by the local running store, stuff like "here is a shoe, here is a gu".  There are some good runners in this group, but this morning was beginners-ville, which was OK, just not what I need.  So I refilled my hand-held and started back in the bright sun about 9:00 or 9:30.  I quickly ran out of water about halfway home.  Exploring a neighborhood looking for solutions I met a woman I go to church with who was happy to fill me up, but she acted like she was looking at a ghost.  Must have looked pretty bad.  She did not invite me in, which was smart on her part.  I thanked her for saving me from certain death and proceeded on.  A couple of miles further I found some lawn sprinklers and took a shower -- had to repeat the shower part when I got home, though.  Finally finished about 10:30 or so and was totally drug out, took an hour just to get re-hydrated.  But it was an interesting morning, although I'm not going to do any more group runs that start at 7:15, at least until the weather cools off.