Heat Wave

Yikes! It's been quite a while since my last post. I've been pretty busy but have maintained my training plan. The half marathon is just 18 days away. Aside from some aching hips after my long runs, I'm feeling pretty good and still hoping to finish in under 2 hours. Yesterday's Boston Marathon served as not only as motivation but warning. With temperatures in the mid 70s at the race's start in Hopkinton, everyone from first timers to elite runners had to reconsider their strategy. Just one year after a course record was broken, yesterday's runners had to economize their energy to maintain a pace that would keep them in the race to the finish line. It's one of the great tragedies of road races - no matter how hard you train, you can't control the weather on race day. Even training in warm temperatures doesn't guarantee a strong finish, it just makes the heat less of a surprise. Pittsburgh has had a fair number of warm days, including yesterday when the temperature reached a high of 84. However, today's high is 62 and we won't get there until 4:00 this afternoon. I absolutely hate running in the heat, so much so that I choose only to run in events that allow me to train in cooler weather. Therefore I'm going to start praying to God/Mother Nature/The Great and Powerful Oz/Al Gore - whoever it is that controls the weather up there - for a nice cool morning on May 6th. 50 degrees and a slight overcast would be just wonderful, thank you very much!