Notes
This is one the more memorable long runs I have had in awhile. I plotted this course out last night and then planned to run it this afternoon since I ran the Show Me Games 5K this morning. Hugh asked about the course so he planned to run part of it too. I intentionally put a lot of hills in this run to make it a challenging hill run. I took off about 1:30 with a water bottle full of Succeed and a spare packet to fill up at 12 mi. It was about 80 when I started the run and humid. I could definitely tell the heat was hurting this run and the hills were harder than usual for me. At about 9 mi I was ready to refill my bottle but had 3 more miles to go.
I ran all the way up the hill on Ridgemont, turned on Forum, and then Chapel Hill Rd. During this entire run I am sweating profusely and then the sun came out to make conditions even worse and warm up to 90 (with a heat index of 104 I find out when I get home).I made it to the trail off Scott Blvd. Filled my bottle and nearly drank all of it, filled again, added Succeed and took off on the trail.
I was hoping the short flat section I would run before turning up Country Woods for my next hill, would allow me some time to recover. However, that hill was worse than any so far. It wasn't just the heat, but my leg muscles were burning going up this hill and I even slowed down. Onto Nifong, and the slight uphill was harder than usual. I was so ready for this run to be over. The sun was beating down on my neck and made me feel even hotter. Other than feeling like crap, I felt fine and all cooling mechanisms seemed to be working.
When I made it to Providence, I had to wait for the light to cross the road and seemed to take forever and I felt like I was baking standing and waiting. Up Providence and then turned up the hill I call the Wall that goes past Mizzou Arena. I walked the hill which is probably what I would have done anyway. I really wanted to walk and felt like my heartrate was high, but continued to run since I only had about 3 mi to go. The course I planned was 20.8 but figured if I could make it to 20, I would walk the rest. After Stadium and Old 63, I see Hugh up ahead. He is walking and it looks like about the time I should catch him I will be at 20 mi. There is no shade and it is uphill at this point. I catch him and stop exactly at 20 mi.
We walked together and then I took a short cut through the MFA grounds to get in the shade. He started running again and then we met up again and walked the rest of the way home. This run wiped me out. After rehydrating (Lost 6 lbs) and showering I was feeling cold so crawled into bed, covered up, and fell asleep. Felt much better when I woke up but kind of tired.