~11 miles @ ~11.3 min/mi

Venus gleams like a brilliant-cut diamond low in the east. A last-quarter moon is almost overhead. Shadows under the trees are scary-dark at 5:40am when I start from the park at the north end of Longhorn Dam. It's the last full day of my visit to family in Texas. Temperatures have peaked every day at above 100°F, so the only runs are early-morning circuits around Town Lake (Monday and Wednesday). A "cold" front is due tomorrow morning, too late to do me any good, alas. Today's temps are in the upper-70s already, with relative humidity in the 80%+ zone. The singlet is abandoned in the car before I start. Walk breaks come every ~5 minutes. I ponder doing two loops around the course, but after a few miles I'm dripping with sweat and come to my senses.

For variety, to add a bit of distance, and to explore new paths on the way back I cross bridges over the Colorado River: the Pfluger pedestrian bridge next to Lamar Ave, then the sidewalk on the bridges for South 1st Street, Congress Ave, and Interstate-35. Bicyclists slip past, mostly making enough sound to give warning. Fellow runners are few compared to earlier this week. Perhaps they're awaiting better weather tomorrow? See Garmin GPS and iPhone Runkeeper for data, including approximate mile splits: 11:27 + 11:54 + 12:38 + 11:58 + 11:50 + 11:44 + 11:22 + 11:30 + 10:58 + 10:20 + 8:29 and a final fraction to make sure I'm over 11 miles on both GPS systems.

^z - 2012-09-21