Heat Advisory

Mrs. Viper visited with an old friend yesterday morning in Cleveland Heights before we were supposed to meet up with her family in Berea, which left me far from home without anything else to do but run from Coventry to University Circle on a sweltering Independence Day.

After dropping off my wife, I parked the car around the corner in shady spot and headed toward the bohemian enclave of Coventry. Nothing was open, but people abounded, just hanging out in the heat. Meanwhile, my bladder was twinging with the coffee I guzzled down before the drive here. Again, nothing was open.

Thankfully, it was so hot that my body was expelling fluids through other means and the urge to urinate eventually faded. 

There's a lot more shade on the trails I've been running, compared to these city streets. I tried to stay close to buildings and under awnings to catch any cool spots. There weren't many.

When I got to University Circle, I had high hopes the Cleveland Museum of Art would be open. Parking was full out front and a family was walking away from the doors in a way that suggested they had just spent a lovely morning enjoying art.

However, more likely that they were walking away in rejection, as the doors were locked when I pulled. My final hope for a bathroom was crushed.

The temperature continued to the climb on the run back to the car. The steep hill out of Little Italy was brutal, as I only got halfway up before succumbing to a walk. I made it back to Coventry with my mileage complete and a decent cooldown walk with actual shade.

I checked the weather on my phone and saw that a heat advisory was in effect from noon until 9 p.m. It was half past noon. The heat index was 104 degrees. The water in my handheld was starting to taste like plastic. The air conditioning was my savior. I sat in car, looking like some creep casing the neighborhood, as I waited for Mrs. Viper to call for me to pick her up.