Sauna

On Thursday night, I failed to make it out of work in time for the club session as I was caught up in endless meetings. I left work as soon as I could and wondered if it was worth running from the clubhouse anyway. In the end, I decided not and came home to go for a run from the house.

The weather was scorching with a temperature of 32°C in the shade. I left the house and ran slowly up the road towards the forest. It was more pleasant in the shade of the trees and it was probably a couple of degrees cooler, which was just as well as I was already cooking having run a kilometre to get there.

The plan was just to run around the Sunday course to cover around 12km at a steady pace. I picked up the pace inside the forest and was running just under 4:30 per km, at around 4:27 - 4:28 pace. I crossed the paths of all the club runners as I first met Thierry, closely followed by Bruno, then Philippe, Mireille and all the rest of the group. I was so glad to be running by myself when I saw Thierry and Bruno coming at full pelt towards me. I just didn't have the energy for that sort of effort tonight !

12.4 km all up in 57:32 or an average of 4:38. Not bad going considering the heat. I drank about a litre of water as soon as I got back to the house. I know why I don't race well in these conditions.