Heat came to the Northeast this week, hitting the 90s, so I begrudgingly moved my running schedule to the morning.  It happens every summer but I find the transition difficult, requiring as much acclimation as the temperature.   In an effort to fight sleep deficit, I’ve been taking melatonin more regularly and even bought a sleep mask to hide the early rays of sun.  The mask seems to be effective but I feel pretty silly in it, like Mrs. Thurston Howell III on Gilligan’s Island.  I don’t know if Lovey had a scene where she wore one, but that’s how I think I look in it.

Aside from Monday, morning temps were all in the 80s with crappy dewpoints.  Not exactly sure why it affects my innards but I’ve been spitting like a hardcore smoker on every single run this week.   On the good note, I’ve improved on power and trajectory to where chin dribble is now at a minimum.  Still, I’d rather not need to at all.

Notable runs were:

Tuesday, a 17-miler.  It’s been 5 months since I went that far.

Thursday’s run was quite peppy with some miles in the 7:30s.  It surprised me, I figured the whole week would be laggardly.

Saturday was full of action…

1. I passed an extremely well-built African guy (I know that sounds stupid, like a “North American guy”, but I didn’t ask what country he was from) who immediately appeared alongside me and asked how far I was going, he was doing 20.  We chatted some but his accent was so thick that I had a difficult time understanding him, plus I’m such an anti-social runner anyway that I eventually excused myself and wished him a great run.  Then for the next mile, we switched leads a couple times with some friendly joking till I picked up speed for good.  It was cute.

2. I stopped at a water fountain where a group of 3 runner girls were standing.  One of them looked at me and squealed outright, then began chattering on about something while staring at my chest.  Then I realized she was going on about my sports bra in a wildly effervescent manner “OH MY GOD, I have that sports bra! It’s from Target, isn’t it?  It’s my favorite bra, I just LOVE it!  Moving Comfort wanted $65 for a bra I tried on and I hated the way it fit blah blah…” She was kinda crazy.

Now, it just so happens that I love my new sports bras and was going to write about them eventually, anyway.  They’re just Target bras but they’re the camisole style, very flattering without the usual bulky straps.  I bought one last year and was surprised by how well it supported so I recently bought a few more. (this is not me, as you can tell from the blonde hair and bigger boobs.)Here are the bras if you want to check them out.  Beware the pink one though, I saw it in the store and it’s truly day-glo (as the reviewer notes).

3. I saw someone fall flat on their face as she was running towards me on Fall’s bridge.  She was fine, picked herself right back up, but you know that moment of stopped time when you see somebody’s arms and legs fly up into the air and there’s nothing you can do except go “Ooooohhh!”?  As painful to watch as when it’s you doing the falling.

All in all, quite an eventful little run.

The Week In Running:
Monday: 9@8:29
Tuesday: 17@8:25
Wednesday: 12@8:21
Thursday: 14@7:58
Friday: 11@8:32
Saturday: 16@8:14
Sunday: 11@8:25
Total: 90 mi (avg pace 8:19)

Not that there could possibly be a connection, but the night before both the zippy Thursday run and Saturday’s good-run-despite-no-sleep-and-crappy-weather I had a burger and sweet potato fries for dinner.  Has to be a coincidence but I dunno, I have had a number of good runs when I ate that combo the night before.

My First Giveaway!
As you know, I’ve been getting books to review which has been interesting (next up: Chris McCormack’s I’m Here To Win).  But this week something new arose – two separate companies emailed and asked if I wanted to do Giveaways with their products.  I’ve never done a giveaway before so I’m kind of excited about it – it’ll be fun to have one of you guys win something.

So the first giveaway starts this Wednesday in honor of National Running Day.  I won’t say what it is but it’s substantial, so get your ass back over here on Wednesday to find out what you can win.

Back to the book thing, does anyone want me to review The Complete Idiots Guide To Marathon Training?  I’m a little torn about what sort of stuff to review because there aren’t going to be many “advanced” books since it takes a celebrated coach to write those and they’re in limited supply.   But I suspect there are a lot of readers who haven’t done a marathon yet and are curious, just not sure how many of you care about such basic basics.  Anyway, the publisher has offered to send me a review copy, so if you think that sounds worthy of review, let me know in a comment please.

Grand Rapids Half in 2012?
Here’s something funny.  It started on Friday when a Facebook friend posted an amazing little video that I reposted on my Wall.  The story behind the video is that Newsweek called Grand Rapids a “dying city” so in response, the city made a fantastic promo: a lip dub to Don McClean’s live version of American Pie.  It’s almost 10 minutes long and was done in one continuous take!  That in itself is an incredible achievement because there were thousands of people involved, even pyrotechnics and a helicopter, so the enormity of the task is mind boggling. Plus, it’s just a wonderful, wonderful video.

Anyway, after I posted it, my runner friend who lives up there, Carl (I know him from the RW 3:20 thread) jumped on the Facebook update and told me I should do the Metro Health Grand Rapids marathon in October, that he was already signed up.  He was teasing, knowing full well that I don’t do marathons anymore, but told me I’ve gotta get up there to race one of these days.  Then later, another FB friend, fellow blogger Marcia, jumped on board and said both the Grand Rapids Full and Half are “spectacular races”.  Okay….

But the kicker was yesterday, when someone named Don Kern wrote on my Facebook update “See you in October, Flo?”

Now, I don’t know who Don Kern is, he’s not a Facebook friend, so I clicked his name and it turns out he’s the race director for the Grand Rapids Marathon and Half!  I’ve no idea how he landed on my FB Wall to post that, but it gave me a great laugh.  I replied that I’m booked this Fall (Philly in Sept. and Vegas in Dec.) but that I might just have to race it in October 2012.  I also noted that a higher power is obviously at work here (Facebook) so far be it from me to fight such a force.

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