Monday, August 25, 2014

16 miles, intense fog & a mild case of heat exhaustion

I probably had some dehydration too. But to be fair, it was totally the weather's fault. Sweat can't cool you down if it can't evaporate...

A quick photo of Lake Michigan I snapped while running on Saturday.
The fog was thick and made it hard to cool down. :(
Saturday morning's long run was particularly long. The first few miles are always hard. But they usually get easier as my legs and breathing fall into a mindless rhythm. This didn't happen Saturday. At mile 6, I accepted that it wasn't going to get any easier. At mile 10, I started feeling light-headed. At mile 10.5, I told my running buddy that I had to chillax a bit. We slowed our pace wayyyy down.


We ended up walking (serious speed-walking) the last few miles to try to cool down a bit. The fog lifted - kind of. The sky started to clear. We talked about how much we wanted a tall glass of ice cold lemonade. And remembered why we were doing this huge, seemingly insurmountable thing in the first place - so that everyone can have clean water to drink, to cool down, to get clean. So that everyone (especially kids) can have all the things we so desperately wanted as we slugged it out on the running trail.

I got in all 16 of my miles and took my chills and headache home. I rung out my clothes, showered and continued on with my life of mothering my adorable kiddos while trying to take it easy, drinking plenty of water and gatorade. It's been a few days and I'm back to my old self - feeling healthy and ready for a few more miles bright & early tomorrow morning...


3 comments:

  1. Symptoms of heat exhaustion are listed here http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/heat-exhaustion and symptoms of dehydration are listed here: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/dehydration-adults.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks, Renee. :)
      I'd love for you to come out and cheer me on come race day! :)

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