RUNNING IN THE #%$&^* HEAT!!!

Well, yesterday morning I ran 12 miles with the Team in beautiful hilly and non-shady Knight's Ferry. We will be doing more long runs up there to get ready for the hills of San Francisco. We started our run at 7:20 ish (what happened to our 7AM start time, I don't know). By then the heat was already starting to rev up a little. Thankfully, we had enough volunteers to have 3 water stations - at the 2 mile, 4 mile, and 6 mile markers. We turned around at 6 miles so we hit the 2 and 4 mile stations twice. I made the mistake of only bringing 2 of my 4 8 ounce water bottles for my water belt. After the second water station I was finishing all of my water before I would get to the next station. It was #%$&^* (insert your favorited descriptive word here) hot!!!
I did fine for the first 6 miles. I had liberally applied sunblock (I think sunblock is the only issue I'm definitely liberal on :) ) before I left, I was wearing shorts, and I had my water belt complete with 2 water bottles and 2 packs of gel. I was ready! At the 6 mile turn around, I filled my hat with ice, refilled my water bottles and started the trip back to the parking lot and the icy cold river ( I was really looking forward to that part!). It was on this stretch of our run that I began to slow my pace down and concentrate on just finishing rather than finishing within a certain time frame. A couple of the Team In Training staff members and mentors were driving up and down the route making sure that everyone was doing alright. Around 9 AM, one of them told us it was already 95 degrees. I did NOT need to hear that! No wonder I couldn't tell if I was sweating, my fingers looked like sausages, and I was sucking down water like a sponge!!! Thankfully, just a short way down the road, he was also handing out ice to refill our hats and water bottles.
Well, I finished the run in 2:45 which, under normal circumstances, might not be the time I wanted, but I know that on a hot day it is not the time to try to set some kind of record. I just wanted to finish without hurting myself and I did. When I finished, the best part is that I got to take off my running shoes, throw on my sandals, and stand in the icy cold river up to my butt for ten minutes to help speed the recovery process in my legs. At first the water feels inhumanely cold, and I have to admit, I was shivering the entire time, but this morning as I write this without stiffness in my legs, I know that the cold water did its job.
Next Saturday, we "only" have to run 10 miles and I haven't looked beyond that on my schedule because I don't want to feel overwelmed. I just know that I will have yesterday's run in the back of my mind when I get to difficult runs in the future. Every run, especially these gruelling long runs, help my seemingly impossible goal of running 26.2 miles seem a little more possible to me!