Of hurricanes and long runs

Ike had us in his sights for a while, but I've lived here long enough to know that we would be fine. All of those gulf hurricanes either make a hard right and rip up through east Texas or a hard left and go down to tear up Mexico. In Ike's case, it was the former. We had been warned about wind gusts of up to 50 mph and lots of rain, but as the storm track moved eastward, I had the sense that not much was going to happen here in Austin.

As it turned out, I was right. We could have used a few inches of rain, but all we got was hot, humid air. Really humid. "Sinking air" they call it, it comes on the west side of a hurricane if you're far enough away to not get caught in the rain bands. We had it with Rita a few years back; fortunately this time we didn't have the 108 degree temperatures that Rita brought, just 97 or so, which is pretty managable for this point in September.

I got up early Sunday to run. Jim said he was going to meet me at 7:30, planning to run 13. I just wanted to get 2+ hours in, somewhere in the 14-16 range. It was very hard to get out of bed; perhaps the hardest morning I've had yet. I don't know why, but it just was. I finally got moving and out of the house around 6:30. I got to Zilker and out of the car at about 6:50 and started my run. It's still pretty dark at that time; I had decided to do an out-and-back on the greenbelt to burn enough time until Jim arrived. That gave me about 40 minutes total to run.

The greenbelt is an amazing place at that time of day. There was just enough light to see, otherwise it's crazy to try running there, the rocks will do you in for sure. But in the sort of quarter-light of the dawn, it's really special to get back into the woods, with noone else around. Only bird sounds to keep you company, that and the occasional scurrying mamal. No owls this morning, but I did hear a red-tailed hawk off in the distance as I came back to the park.

I passed one guy on the way out and then again on the way back. But other than that I had the place to myself. I managed to not fall along the way, and just enjoyed some time in nature (in spite of the humidity). I made it back to the parking lot just in time to catch Jim getting out of his car.

We headed out on the eleven mile loop to Longhorn Dam and back. I figured that I had probably gotten 3+ miles in on the greenbelt, so with 11 more I'd be at my 14 for the day. While the humidity bore down on us, at times it would seem to strangely vanish. I knew that a cool front was supposed to be coming in, but I couldn't explain how it could feel oppressively humid at one moment and then cooler and dryer a few minutes later.

I felt pretty good along the way. At times we upped the tempo and coming back to the Mopac bridge Jim ran away from me. I had to keep telling myself it was ok to let him go. My tempo was at about 8:00, according to the quarter mile markers along the path, and I really didn't want to go any faster than that. He was probably hitting around 7:30 there towards the end.

I caught him at the water stop and we ran on together back to Zilker. He left me to do another 3 mile loop, but I was happy to be done and headed back to the car. I was more worn out than I had expected, but this is likely to be one of my last, if not my very last long run, so that put me in a good mood.

No hurricane, no rain. But the promise of a mid-September cold front and a cool week ahead. It's hard to ask for more (or at least expect it!) at this time of year.