92 days

     I think I have a disorder. I get so thirsty that it feels I've been sucking on kitty litter during the whole run. I was so desperate for water during my run this morning that I contemplated drinking from a puddle or jacking a homeless man's water jug while he was asleep on the bench. I would've even put up with a little diarrhea in result of drinking nasty water if it weren't for my big plans of playing with my cats all day.
     But for real - how do people train in this weather? It is just so friggin hot out it's miserable. Some runners carry a bottle of water but other people have a sort of water belt thing they strap around their waste. It looks handy but somewhat dorky. It kind of reminds me of a back brace that provides proper lumbar support during your heavy lifting sessions at Home Depot. Whatever it is - I was determined to get it.
     In Tampa there's a cool running store where they have a built in track to test out running shoes on and they even have cameras set up on treadmills to test what the best running shoe would be for you. I ended up finding a whole bunch of different water belts. After I tried on a couple I settled on a "fuel belt" made by Nathans. 

It felt really snug and comfortable around my waste and it didn't seem to slide up and down when I ran in place. It has a velcro belt rather than a clip belt which is nice. The velcro front prevents it from slipping compared to a plastic clip. It costs about $50 and it has a nifty spot to stick my iphone in too. The guy at the register said he uses his for his long runs and it's amazing. He throws the back bottles in the freezer before his runs that way the bottles are still nice and cold towards the end of a long run. I'm very excited to try it out. I love getting new toys and running clothes - they make me more excited to go running. I hope this water belt thing allows me to run for longer than 20 minutes at a time - or at least it will help me "want" to run more than 20 minutes.