4th of July

My plan was to start running about 9:00 a.m. on July the 4th. Somehow I lazied around the house until 10:00. I'm getting pretty good at that. By then it was already pretty hot. I left on foot headed for Hillbilly Heaven and shuffled along until I hit four miles. I was a little bit out Humphrey Highway by then. Slowing to a walk, I attempted, unsuccessfully, to lower my body temperature. I walked a mile and then ran another one. 

It was then that I checked the weather on my phone. The temperature was only 89, but the dew point was 78. Dude, a 78 dew points is crazy high, hurting high, dangerously high. I was beginning to experience the fact that my hear rate was not going down too much when I walked. It would hit 170 while running and drop to 152 while walking. Huh? Yeah, that is one of the things a high dew point will do to you. Your body just can't cool itself and the heart beats ever harder and faster in an attempt to pump blood to the surface where sweat evaporation can pull away body heat. Only with a high dew point, the sweat does not evaporate.

Instead of going up the big paved hill, I turned on the old Browning Road to cut some distance. I was beginning to understand that getting there was going to be a chore. Penny texted me when I was about nine and a half miles in and asked it I was OK. I said yes, but that was only partly true. I desperatelywanted to make it, but by the time I hit the gravel hill, I knew I was in trouble. I stopped in a little patch of shade half way up the steep climb and tried to cool down some. That's when I sent a text asking for her to dispatch her brother Hank to come pick me up.

You can probably tell that I was about done. 
I was sitting in a patch of
shade trying not to die.

Hank found me  and he even had his air conditioner on high. I was not ashamed. It's better to get a ride than to die. Live to run again another day. Thank you, Jesus.