Trail Running in the Heat

Went out to Memorial Park last night for an evening run. 94 degrees, a little hot in the sun. Made my way from the tennis center counter-clockwise with two power aid bottles and a power shot in my shorts. Coming up the hill on Memorial Drive and a bank of dark clouds started coming my way from downtown. By now I was pretty hot but the clouds were just teasing me with a few sprinkles. They finally let loose as I crossed Memorial to enter the woods and thank goodness as everything felt heavy and hot. Usually I carry a water bottle to splash on my head when it's so hot nobody should be running but since I only had power aid the rain was welcome. It dropped the temperature about 10 degrees as well.

It didn't rain enough to really muddy up the trails except for those spots that were already muddy from the last rain. Didn't see any big snakes this time but every branch I jumped over looked like a snake to me. I saw Richard at the water hole, ran into Johnny Mac on the loop and ran Ashley in on the tail end of her last 1m repeat. All in all a great run. Beats sitting on the couch.

Dirt exposure 'boosts happiness' from the BBC

Exposure to dirt may be a way to lift mood as well as boost the immune system, UK scientists say.

As an avid trail runner, I already knew there was something to this.  On Mother's Day this year we took the kids to the park and let them run through the mud puddles and get as dirty as they wanted to.  Good sport Mom!  Talk about happy as a pig in mud.

Try it sometime, or you could just get one of those mud-face things at the Spa.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6509781.stm

technorati tags:Trail, Running

Blogged with Flock

Use Your Own Judgement on This One

Arkansas GOP head: We need more 'attacks on American soil' so people appreciate Bush

Josh Catone
Published: Sunday June 3, 2007

In his first interview as the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, Dennis Milligan told a reporter that America needs to be attacked by terrorists so that people will appreciate the work that President Bush has done to protect the country.

From RawStory
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Arkansas_GOP_head_We_need_more_0603.html