Last Sunday night, I was sitting in my hotel room at the outset of my family's week at the Marco Island Marriott. Marco Island, on the extreme southwestern corner of Florida, is the largest of the "Ten Thousand Islands." There are actually a few hundred islands; someone has counted.
The good news is I did keep my promise to myself to maintain an exercise plan. I ran three times and went to the nicely equipped workout room twice to ride the exercise bike. Here are a few observations:
1) 8:30 a.m. is not early enough to "escape the heat" on Marco Island in July!
2) The chocolate croissants at the Cafe San Marco taste amazing as a post-run snack.
3) Most of the planning around an hour long run during this vacation involved hydration -- stashing water bottles in trees; stopping mid-run at 7-11 for Gatorade, and wondering just how toxic the "non potable irrigation water" was!
4) Venturing anywhere inland is directly correlated with being hotter due to the lack of beachside breezes.
5) The city fathers (and mothers I guess) of Marco Island who put a water fountain (complete with a doggie-height spout) halfway through one of my runs are GENIUSES!!
Will the runs I took on this trip get me any closer to running faster 5K's? I think I at least held my ground. I do know that, just like a regular workday here in Tallahassee, most days that start off with a run end up being better days in general!
Yep, I sweated at least 10,000 drops on these runs. That's okay; I had plenty of options for hydration as the day wore on and the beautiful sunsets filled the sky.
There's another island to run in the future: Roosevelt Island when Tenley and I are in New York in October! (I got this idea from a post at http://runemployed.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/running-roosevelt-island/)
I'll "run" into you next week, readers!
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