I thought I’d try to run a marathon in the heat of the summer. What could go wrong? It’s next Saturday and I’m guessing a lot will go wrong. I could count on one hand how many days I’ve run this month. I could probably count on one hand how many miles I’ve trained. This isn’t going to go well.

But I have a plan B. I’ll treat it as a training run. I’ll purposely run slow as if it were an ultra. That’s called lying to oneself. I couldn’t run fast if I tried. But I will need to run slow to survive the heat and avoid a DNF. I’ve never DNF’d a marathon. There’s always a first.

Cool thing about this marathon is it’s four laps around the Boulder Reservoir – hence the name of the race is the Boulder Rez. Most of it will be on dirt roads. And there will only be a few hundred runners. Runners stupid enough, or fit enough, to run a marathon in the heat of August.

I do know the backroads around the Rez well. There are a few hills but no momentum killers. I’m going to keep a cooler, maybe in my car, along the course to store ice and my water bottles. Each loop is a 10K, so I’ll carry a single 500ml water bottle per loop rather than wear a vest. The aid stations will have Gatorade Endurance Formula which doesn’t have enough sodium to keep me from cramping, so I need my own. I could supplement the Gatorade with S!CAPs, but those only have 341 mg sodium and 21 mg potassium, plus I’ve never raced with them before. I’ll try them, but I know I don’t like gatorade so I’ll still carry a running bottle around the course.

I’ll be a little scared toeing up to the starting line, knowing I’m not conditioned for this, but it’ll be an interesting attempt. I bet I can finish if I run slow enough. I’d still like to run under 5 hours, because I’ve never run a marathon over 5 hours before. My slowest is 4:35. I’d be happy if I run close to that time. Too little, too late, but I am having a good weekend training. The pic above is on the East Boulder Trail. Wish me luck.