From a marathoner's standpoint, the weather we had for last Saturday's run was the best we've had yet. Contrast the cloudy, cool conditions to the humid, hot run we had at Minnehaha Falls the week before (when we ran around Pike Island).
How much harder do you think your 20 mile run would have been that day? Or a 26.2 miler?
I would recommend having a firm grasp in your mind of just how different it was to run on August 18, compared to August 11. You can really see how the weather can affect your performance. When it comes time for your marathon, you will hopefully now be more adept at using the weather to help guide your goals.
Going into Grandma's this year, I had three goals, based on how I felt and the weather. My first two goals were time goals, and my third goal is always the same: to finish.
As I waited in line at the Port-A-Potty at 6 a.m. and the sun beat down on my neck like it was from south Texas, I knew my high goal had to be scrapped. So my approach was to keep my middle goal out there for the first 13 miles and at that point decide if I should scrap that too, and just finish and enjoy the ride. For that too is an admirable goal.
I met up with Marty and a few other folks about 30 minutes prior to the start and Marty said he was actually going to make a determination at mile two about how hard to push himself.
I can't speak for Marty, but I ended up being happy with my marathon. If I didn't have a policy in place about how I would approach the marathon, I would have surely gone out too fast, as I am wont to do. Mental discipline always trumps mental toughness in a marathon.
So consider the weather over our remaining long runs. If you can feel it on a 12 to 20 mile run, you need to factor that into how you approach a 26.2 mile run. It's not the heat. It's not even the humidity. It's how long you are in the heat and humidity that matters. I mean looked at what happened to these little guys on an MDRA long run too long ago.
Stained Glass? A mosaic? Pompeii? Or melted Gummi Bears?
This is what the heat does to marathoners who go out too fast. Well, at least marathoners who are bears made out of sugar. Either way, don't let this happen to you! I don't know if even MDRA team veterinarian Carolyn Fletcher could have saved these poor guys.
At the end of June, you guys did a long run from Hidden Falls. I had a work conference I had to go to. So I set up a water/PowerAid station along E. River Road for the class, first thing that morning, and then went to my meeting. I got out of the meeting just before lunch, grabbed something to eat, and drove back to E. River Road to break down the aid station. It was 2 p.m. by this time. I had put some Gumm... Walgreen's Bears out as part of the aid station. You get what you pay for. Generic "candy bears" clearly don't do well in the heat.
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