Route: Texas 4 Miler
Distance: 4 Miles
Pace: 11:15/mile
Distance: 4 Miles
Pace: 11:15/mile
Temp: 83 Degrees
"Texas, Our Texas" is the state song of Texas. The Wife, who is originally from Texas, tends to hum and sing this whenever we are getting close to going to Texas or are actually there. It turns out that if you are from Texas, you definitely know this song, as it is drilled into your head sometime in junior high. They probably made you ride a wild bull or something until you memorize it. My Texas running adventure unfortunately consisted of just one run, as I got sick late in the week, but here is what it was like:
HOT
SUNNY
SANDY
There, that just about wraps it up.....
So apparently in Texas, it is hotter then in Michigan. Not just hotter, but HOTTER. Here is what I ran through:
Ok, so that might be the Sahara Desert, and it might not have been that hot. To my Midwestern bones though, it felt awfully toasty. The sun just beat down, not a cloud in the sky, trees were few and far between, as I was running in cattle country. is was also very sandy, the middle portion of the run was on a "road" that was really just a 20' wide strip of sand. All of the sudden I was running on the beach! As this was an out and back, I knew it was going to be fun coming back as well. I also had to keep a watch out for copperhead snakes, as I almost stepped on one earlier in the week.
There were several nice things about the run. The scenery was beautiful, as I was running mostly by cow pastures, so there was grass stretching out to the horizon. It was also very cool to see so many butterflies, they would flitter past me, while I was running. Apparently the monarch butterfly comes through the area pretty heavily, so I was seeing the tail end of the migration northward. It is strangely calming to run by a herd of several hundred cattle. They just kind of moo and shuffle along.
I have friends who live and run in Texas, and I have a ton of respect for them. I am sure they would say the same when I am out running in 13 degree January, but honestly, I think heat is more dangerous to a runner then cold. We have the recent example of the Boston Marathon, which took the unprecedented move to grant weather deferments to anyone who wanted them, because it was going to be 83 out. Heat can do serious things to a body under prolonged stress, and especially people like me who are not the smallest and tend to warm up very quickly.
There were several nice things about the run. The scenery was beautiful, as I was running mostly by cow pastures, so there was grass stretching out to the horizon. It was also very cool to see so many butterflies, they would flitter past me, while I was running. Apparently the monarch butterfly comes through the area pretty heavily, so I was seeing the tail end of the migration northward. It is strangely calming to run by a herd of several hundred cattle. They just kind of moo and shuffle along.
I have friends who live and run in Texas, and I have a ton of respect for them. I am sure they would say the same when I am out running in 13 degree January, but honestly, I think heat is more dangerous to a runner then cold. We have the recent example of the Boston Marathon, which took the unprecedented move to grant weather deferments to anyone who wanted them, because it was going to be 83 out. Heat can do serious things to a body under prolonged stress, and especially people like me who are not the smallest and tend to warm up very quickly.
It was fun to run in a new and different place, but I was glad to put in a few miles tonight in perfect running conditions, about 53 and partly sunny.
So what is the hottest weather you have ever run in, and what was the effect on you?
Hmm...90-something degree Texas weather in the summer or early fall. Ugh. It's never pretty, but being outside can be a much-needed break from the treadmill. Really, I think it's hard to run under both extremes: a Michigan winter (dark evenings, ice and snow, coldness) or a Texas summer (hot-hot-hot with humidity and a blazing sun).
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