Long run at dawn

I had set up everything the night before:

• Clothes
• GPS watch all charged
• heart rate strap
• iPhone charged
• Dual 22 oz water bottles washed
• Headphones located

I set the alarm for 4:30 am and was up and out the door in 15 minutes after making my usual pre-run shake.  When I got to the parking lot at the head of the Peabody Independence Bike path there was nobody there… just the way I like it.  It was brutally muggy, 80 degrees with a heat index of 92.. which is *not* the way I like it.  I kept the music off for a while so I could just enjoy the sounds surrounding me.

I saw rabbits all over the place as well as deer, geese, frogs, swans and a ton of birds.  I kept the pace low and steady and only stopped a few times to take pictures. After a while I switched to an audio book I have been enjoying and lost myself in the run and the book.

It was so muggy and hot eventually my sweat overcame the “moisture wicking” properties of my shirt and I started chafing.  I should have taken the shirt off but instead I ignored the symptoms and ended up paying with that awful runners penalty: bloody nipples.