What's crazier than running at 6:30 am on a Saturday?

Running at 6am.

Nah, let's make it 5am.

It's been in the upper 90's the last few days with high humidity, and Saturday looks to be no different.

If this was my first summer training, I might think that I'd be finished with a 14 miler before it really got hot by starting at 6:30am.

Truth is, I know better.

In 2008, there was a particularly hot Saturday where our long run was 16 miles. I'm not the only one that remembers the day. I guess you could call it one of our war stories from training.

I don't recall the run south to the loop being all too bad. It was the journey back that got us. That's the day I learned how much I dislike the lakefront between Ohio and Fullerton. It's an uncomfortable mass of concrete being continuously blasted by the sun.

Between Ohio and North Avenue, we went from two groups of ten to groups of 3 or 4. Each person was doing whatever they could to keep moving forward, but it wasn't pretty. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't call it running. But we finished the run and learned a valuable lesson.

Check the weather and run earlier.

Which leads me to thinking about the last few days of intense heat. Remember during the blizzard we were wishing for this? Now we have all the heat we could ever dream of but we don't want it. In lieu of complaining, I read a facebook status from Salute Inc. which I found to some things up quite nicely:

I was going to complain about how hot it is, then I realized that: 1.) It isn't really 109 degrees; 2.) I'm not 5,700 miles from home; 3.) I'm not dressed in a full BDU uniform and helmet and carrying 70+ lbs.; and 4.) There is very little chance that anyone will shoot at me. Thanks to all that serve!

Thanks for reminding us Salute, and, thank you Dan.