Jon- "Barry, this is almost my highest mileage week this year, and I want to make it even harder. What do you think we can do?" Barry- "Let's go for a 22 mile run over the most rugged terrain in South Carolina."
Jon- "Sounds good. And I'm already weak from my toe and from giving blood and fainting a few days ago." Barry- "Great! How about we do this run during the hottest Saturday yet in Greenville, with a high of 98 and heat index of 107." Jon- "Splendid. And since they suggest limiting outdoor activity between 10 am to 4 pm, how about we purposely wait to start our workout until 10:30 am, then don't finish until just after 4 pm."
Barry- "The only thing that could make it better is if you somehow had a campout with boy scouts last night where it was so hot all night you couldn't sleep much, plus had a dog making noise nearby all night long."
Jon- "Sounds like a good plan, see you Saturday. Oh, and I thought of one more item- driving 90 min home afterwards in 98 deg temps with no air conditioning would be the final cherry on top!" Yup, that was my run. Enjoyable, very hot and long- I think I drank 180 oz water during the run. 22 miles, 4:26, 5300 ft climbing. Gorges State Park- Auger trail to FHT Bear Gap camp, all along to FHT to Rock Creek, a bit more up the stairs (to where I had done before), then up Cane Brake trail. There was some steep, steep stuff- on the FHT Cane Brake steps, you climb 330 ft in under .2 mile. It was so nice to be able to do a long run with Barry again. We even saw a few people I knew, including Dan Hartley who was crazy enough to attempt the entire 77 mile FHT today. Final note the self- XT Wings shoes do not hurt my toe at all due to where the bend is. No shoe pain today at all.
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