Mad Dogs and Englishmen

—and apparently I—go out in the midday sun.

Now, I don't want to exaggerate the intensity of the midday sun here in the Northwest. Today, at least, it is still quite mild. But still, with an entire morning to get out and run, after waking up before 7 a.m., was it really necessary to wait until 11 a.m. to go out for a long run?

Apparently it was. (Breakfast, post-breakfast recovery period, Bobby Flay on the Food Network; all these things contributed to my lag-a-bed morning.)

I left home at about 11 a.m. with the plan of running about 11 miles. I'd mapped out a couple of variations of my route, and I was going to play it by ear exactly which way to go. I wore a very light breathable jacket (so I would have pockets), intending to take it off if I got too warm. But in fact I had enough of a breeze most of the time that I didn't have to take the jacket off.

I ran south on Colby as far as 37th, where I turned west to cut over to Rucker. Doubling back to 35th, I ran up—and up—Rucker Hill as far as I could go. Then I made my way down the other side, behind Providence Hospital on Kromer, and finally met up with Marine View Drive at Hewitt. Then I just followed Marine View Drive all the way around the north end of town, till it turned into East Marine View Drive and eventually Everett Avenue, ending up at QFC (as usual), where I bought an iced latte at Starbucks and walked the rest of the way home.

It was not a fast run. I put a little zip in my step running up the hills on 35th, but most of the time I just plodded along. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the Nutella waffles I had for breakfast (but hours earlier!). On my last downhill to QFC, I did pick up the pace a little bit—I like to finish well. But it was definitely an "easy" run, as far as speed goes!

After I got home, I mapped out my final route and determined that I had gone about 11.75 miles.

I am finishing this up late on Sunday night, before running myself a bath to soak my achy hips and back. I am as sore tonight as I have been since I threw out my back last Saturday. Hopefully my epsom salt/arnica bath oil/hot water treatment (supplemented by Advil) will ease the pain. I've had enough of this!