It's All About Isaac In The Long Run

Day 21

Today I'm 194.4 pounds of rolling thunder.

Of course not as thunderous as the hurricane that is currently taking aim at the Gulf Coast, but a rolling blob with ground-shaking abilities nonetheless.

Yesterday was a long day, both on the road and at the computer screen. 

I foolishly told my bosses that if anyone needed help with hurricane coverage, I was their guy. By morning there was a note, and I was in play. In play until 1 a.m.

Out on the road things were heating up. After a respite from the heat over the weekend, the burner was back on so my run was not as easy as it had been last week.

I walked and ran up the starter hill and then rounded the turn into the first downhill. Usually somewhere around this point I know if it's going to be a strong day or a weak day. If I roll down the hill with relative ease and then take the long, slow rise in the next block without trouble, I'm usually good for the day.

This time I labored through the rise but did not walk. But the big hill that followed involved considerable walking through the steep part.

I found my way fairly well through most of the first 3 miles, until I gave in to my nemesis long hill and walk/ran the rest of the way to the top. 

Usually, the 4.5-mile mark is where my legs start feeling the added distance. This is where I tell myself to push on through. I can cut the route and make a shorter day of it, but it almost always comes with a guilty feeling. 

So I pushed on allowing myself to walk on parts of the final steep hill. With the distance and the heat, I was OK with it.

By the time I logged on to start hurricane coverage the waiting game had begun. My work calls for me to help two TV stations that are directly in the path of the storm. Their editors were nervous and for good reason.

Everyone involved could remember the path of destruction that Katrina brought that way. It was sort of an eerie feeling to think that the giant storm hit the area almost seven years ago to the day that Isaac was expected to make landfall.

The good thing this time was people were taking the storm serious. They were getting their homes ready and making exit plans. Politicians both locally and nationally were focused on making things as safe as possible. 

Round one of my long day stretched well into the night as we prepared people with information about the upcoming storm. With the storm reaching hurricane status today, I'm sure my working long run will take on additional urgency but again stretch into the night.

So today, if you see a rather sleepy looking slowest human making the rounds, give me a wave -- and some caffeine.