Half marathon in Hades

I am trained up to a point where barring something unforeseen I am going to shatter my half marathon personal record time this Sunday. I am at my lowest weight in three years. I have been adamant about my diet, especially this week (except for the donut I ate this morning as part of "donuts with dad" at my kid's school... it was chocolate glazed and it was delicious). I have been getting sleep. I've been hydrating. I've been doing everything right. But now the unforeseen is becoming seen.

One thing I can't do well no matter what is run in warm weather. I can't breathe well and I'm a heavy, salty sweater even when it's cool out. When it's warm I have a hard time replenishing both the water and the salt while I run. And now the forecast for Frederick, Maryland on race day is a high of 89 and a low of 69. Unbelievable. The next day the low is supposed to be a reasonable 55, but on race day? Of course it can't be reasonable. So knowing how I am and how susceptible to cramping I become when I lose hydration and electrolytes (even though I know neither has been scientifically correlated with cramping) I'm worried.

My plan was to wear a fuel belt and bypass the aid stations. I have seen people who wear belts to train and then count on water stops during the race to run belt-free. I don't get that because those people are racing in a way that's different from how they trained and I thought that was always rule #1 on what not to do. Plus, there's always a logjam at the water stops and I don't want to get slowed down. That strategy worked out great for me at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, where the only aid I needed was strapped around my waist and I bypassed all the traffic at the stops.

Anyway, I'm thinking I might have to supplement my fuel belt with the water stops this weekend just because I have to maintain hydration because of the heat and I will only have 20 ounces of water on me. The concern is how much that's going to slow me down. It's a big concern.


"This is where we're anticipating peeling the Running Moron's melted carcass off the pavement."
Oh, well. I can't control the weather, so I just have to go out there and run my race the best I can. But after all this work and all this preparation I don't know how I'm going to handle a poor performance that's affected by something as random as Mother Nature's mood.

Hopefully I won't have to find out.