A New Start

To nobody's surprise, and as most of my runs since this past summer have gone before, I felt awful during my run today. I went out on a 6 miler at one of the two local aqueducts in my town, and despite having easily done this exact trail several times in recent years, I had a very hard time keeping up with the rest of the team. At the start I actually felt ok, as does every runner, but the scorching heat and the rough road soon caught up with me. Less than 2 miles into the run, the burden of carrying my own body took over; my arms and shoulders shrugged upward, my breathing got faster and less consistent, and I could feel my heart pounding out of my chest. Earlier in the season I had imagined it was just the humidity and heat from the earlier weeks of September, but today was rather cool and cloudy. Finally at the 4 mile point, I saw my coach standing beside his car with a massive water jug; this was a huge sign of relief. On the way back I felt all of the same effects on my breathing, chest, and aching muscles until the run had finally ended. I had to wait in my car for roughly half an hour before I had the energy to drive home.