DEHYDRATION SUCKS, PART II

The "exclusive" Hollister Trail.

My long run this weekend ended up being a flashback to the run I detailed in this post last summer. Basically I got super dehydrated and ended up having to cut the run short because I just couldn't run anymore.

I'll preface this story by saying we've had AMAZING weather the last few days. Not just sunny, but sunny and WARM. It hit 80 degrees yesterday. EIGHTY! In March. That is unheard of here. We smashed the daily record and almost set an all-time monthly high. Needless to say, going from 50 degrees to 80 degrees can be quite the shock on the body.

I slept in again so I didn't start running until after 1pm in the heat of the day. I could tell it was going to be hot but I just decided to go for it and see what happened. I had to wear a black shirt because it was my only Nike shirt, more on that later, so I wasn't dressed appropriately.

The run started out great. My goal was to run 12 miles at a good clip. It would be my last serious training run before the Corvallis Half Marathon in two weeks. Despite the heat the run actually started out fantastically. I was feeling good, the weather was beautiful, I was running a new route... life was good!

My route had me going up through the powerline parks and then wandering to the Geoff Hollister Trail, adjacent to the Nike World Headquarters. Nike owns this open chunk of forest and they recently put a running trail in. Technically it is supposed to be for Nike employees only, but it is RIGHT next to the sidewalk in many spots and everyone just kind of runs on it anyways.

Saturday's 11 mile route.

When it first opened they actually had security at times patrolling it but got some bad press and backed off a little. Honestly, it is such a tease, what do they expect. Anyways, now it seems they are more lax, but they still check it out from time to time and if you are decked out from head to toe in Adidas they might kindly ask you to leave.

I had a Nike shirt, Nike shorts, and Nike socks all in anticipation of running on this trail. I still had my Brooks shoes on though so I felt like a bandit. Anyways, I figured I had enough Nike and I've dumped enough money into that company I'd tell them to shut the front door if they gave me any trouble. Well, they actually rarely have anyone "monitoring" it, so I ran through it fine, along with many other runners. It was pretty!

It was right after getting done with that, about eight miles in, that I started to hit a wall. All I could think about was water and my body was starting to really complain. I could feel my energy depleting and my mile times were plummeting. I was determined to hit 12 miles, but that 11th mile was one of the longest in my life. I just couldn't do it. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in training is pushing yourself to the point where you can fuck something up, and I was getting close.

After spending the entire 11th mile crafting letters in my head to the City of Beaverton about lack of public water fountains I finally gave it up once the phone hit 11. No need to be stupid. Luckily a quarter mile up the road was a church baseball diamond that had TWO water fountains. I made love that fountain. Why Beaverton can't place a water fountain in a fucking park to save their lives I'll never know.

Anyways, in conclusion, great run until the last few miles, then hell. Need to start bringing water or incorporating known fountains into my runs. That, or it needs to get 50 and overcast again (much more likely).

Felt really good those first seven miles, eight was okay, the rest sucked.