If You Don’t Like the Heat, Just Finish Sooner

It’s Not My Fault If You Choose To Follow My Husband’s Advice Issue #8 If You Don’t Like the Heat, Just Finish Sooner

I had a race this past weekend and after I finished, I had an apostrophe. Lightning struck my brain. I told Amy to text me so I wouldn’t forget it.

The race started at 6am in San Antonio. It was a cool mid-to-high 70s morning (cool for us at least). I had never been to this park so I took the first lap easy (6 laps of 5.4 miles each). Then, after I saw how much fun the course was in its entirety, I ran a bit harder the 2nd through 4th laps. The sun started getting higher and hotter during my 5th lap (10am) and a lot more during my 6th and final lap (11am). It was during my last lap that I realized how glad I was to not have to run any more laps. Not just because being finished is a great feeling, but because it was getting a lot warmer. I sort of felt bad that so many others running the 50k (31 miles) had to be out there all afternoon to complete the race while I had it easy finishing before noon.

I will also mention that this logic applies to the dreaded/awesome Habanero 100. It starts at noon and you must be finished by 6pm the next day (30 hours). You’re gonna have a lot of sun time no matter what the first day. But if you don’t want to be in the sun ALL day the next day, just finish as the sun is coming up and then you can skip the heat.

So, in conclusion, if you don’t like the heat, either you must run faster or move to some northern state that thinks 80 degrees is hot. Or just suffer through the heat and hate those jerks that finish early. Just understand that they know that the ones who endure the long hours of exposure are the real crazy tougher than nails runners.