Today's run was kind of an accident. I took today and Friday off to spend some time with my family before the work gets even busier and preparations for back to school begins. Last night we stayed up late and then slept in this morning. I had the opportunity to get my usual 4.75 hours of sleep and get up to run with friends early this morning...I passed. So today was beach day. I decided to wait on my run till we got to the beach as that was the lowest humidity of anywhere in the Tampa Bay area. Made sense at the time. We found a spot to park, unload, set up on the beach, and for me to decide that now is the time to run. The time was 2:15 pm, the temperature was 90º and the humidity was a wonderful 52%. No wind! No cloud cover. My goal was take it out at about 8:45 pace and after a mile, do a 4 mile tempo which would include two bridge climbs, finishing with a 1 mile cool down. I stopped before I finished mile 2. Dude, it was sooo hot, I could not believe it. Breathing was hard and my heart rate was up past normal. I found a spot in the shade to cool off for a minute and get a drink (luckily I was carrying a fuel belt with water, cell phone, and debit card). Got back started after about a 5 minute break and headed up Sand Key bridge. Kept good form and pace although my heart rate was skyrocketing. I just tried to keep everything together and get over the top without stroking out. I cruised the downhill side and about a quarter of a mile later, cruised into the Marriott Sand Key to refill my bottle and take another break (I was only at mile 3 here and I was taking my 2nd break) this time in the air conditioning. At this point I realized the tempo was out of the question, completing the entire 6 miles was seriously in question, and "should I even attempt to run back over that stupid bridge" was my burning question. I did run the bridge. I did see some beautiful sights both Gulfward and Bayside. The water was several shades of blue, green, and I guess turquoise (ladies, is that how you spell it?). I saw people fishing, sailing, parasailing. Interestingly, I saw no one running... On the other side of the bridge I made it to my earlier shady spot and decided to call it a day. It was just too stinking hot for this old man to be running. I'm still not doing a good job of maintaining pace especially when I'm supposed to be running slower. Had I stuck with an 8:50 - 9:00 pace I probably could have kept going. I decided the smart thing would be to use my cell phone to call my wife; my debit card to get something cold to drink at the Hess station; and to use my head to make note of what a disaster this was. NOTE TO SELF: Don't run in the middle of the day when there's no cloud cover and it's really hot.. The rest of our beach time was spent in the water which was a wonderful 88º, where I saw a young dolphin leap out of the water about seven times. I've lived here all my life and have never seen that before. Our afternoon ended at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill where I had a recovery meal of Calamari and a Grouper Reuben sandwich. Not a bad way to come back from a bad run. 
Time: 2:15 pm Total Time:32.58 (8:01 avg) Temp: 90º Humidity: 52%
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