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Despite baking bread and making homemade stew I couldn’t make it feel like Fall.  I even toyed around with the idea of lighting a fire in the fireplace, but decided that if I did the air conditioner would be sure to kick on.  So instead of Fall we are still enjoying Northwest summer, with highs in the upper 70s.

What started out as playing with bubbles on the deck…

Turned, as almost everything does, to playing in the water.  It is generally safer and more fun for everyone if Jillian, not Wesley, has the hose.

During my run yesterday I took a stab at drinking while running.  I have no problem using the bottle with the bite valve, but you don’t get paper cups with little bite valves during the marathon.  So I took the lid off the bottle and got more water on my face than in my mouth.  I see now why they recommend you walk through the water stations during the race.  I’ll probably keep practicing with the drinking on the run, but I’m guessing when it comes down to it I’ll walk that part of the race.  After all a few minutes difference between walking and running won’t mean much in a four hour race.

To give you an idea how important it is to drink during the long runs and race I did a little experiment.  During a 5 mile run lasting 45 minutes I lost 2.2 lbs.  How do I know?  I weighed myself before and after the run, nekkid (that’s naked in Texas talk) and holding the water bottle.  The bottle was full when I left and nearly empty when I got back.  The run was in the evening and temperatures were in the mid to upper 70s.  At that rate I need to drink nearly 3 lbs of water for every hour I run.  During a 4 hour run I’m looking at 12 lbs = 192 ounces = 24 cups of water = 1.5 gallons of water.  That is a lot of little paper cups.  Especially if you are splashing most of them all over yourself while running.