Friday, May 18, 2012

4 seasons instead of tropical weather

How do you know Spring/Summer has arrived?
When EVERYONE starts asking: "OMGEE WHY HAVE YOU BECOME SO SKINNY?!?!"
No, I didn't "become skinny", I just shed off 4 layers of clothes and my poofy cat-eared leopard hoodie. :D 

So.. I've been here in Arizona for 7 months now. Arrived at the end of autumn (HOT!), went through months of winter without turning on the heater, danced through spring after shedding the layers of clothes and now roasting in the soon-to-be all out summer heat.

Speaking of which, I haven't been under the sun much for the past 5 years, so the moment I arrived under the blazing Arizona sun, it literally took me the walk from the shelter of the airport to the coach to start peeling. And the next few days (and months), the walk from the parking lot to the shopping mall or my house to the gym to turn red.

Naturally, I've been hiding from the sun the past seven months that I've been here.
(Yes, even in the winter!)
Another reason apart from sun burn is that I'm allergic to most sunscreens and I hate turning tan because I'm Asian and there will be this horrible yellow phase before I turn back to pale white.

And if anyone is going to advise me to stay tan... NO.
Back to the above point about sun screen, and also no thanks to premature aging, wrinkles, and skin cancer TYVM. Plus, I'm puny and being tan just makes me look smaller. So, no.

Back to the point.

Basically, I've been cowering in the comfortable shelter of my apartment and blasting the air conditioning to fend off the summer heat, not going out into the sun and wind and general dryness of the desert.

And then I did the unthinkable one day. I've always wanted to jog outside but because the guys have been training for their IPPT and I can't keep up with them if they run at the passing time pace (WHAT? I'm not a born runner okay?!), I haven't been able to join them apart from when they train at the gym.
In fact, I can't even complete the 2.4km run here because of the dryness and lower oxygen levels.. I just get so breathless I'm afraid I'll pass out and the furthest I've ever run here is only about 1.6km. And that's in the humid, cool gym!

So, when my friend got called up for a training run in the base stadium and asked my husband to join him, naturally I jumped at the chance and went along. After all, if I get tired, I can go rest in the shade somewhere right? Doesn't matter if I run just 400m or 4m! They can come get me after they finish their run in 12 minutes! :D

When I got there....... They decided to run around the base using the actual IPPT route. Having nowhere else to go and really wanting to get some exercise, I joined in...
...10 minutes later I was seriously regretting my decision and considering sticking up a thumb for a hitchhike back to the starting point.

I've never seriously considered myself as living in a desert because I've been so sheltered but HOLY CRAP did that run drive the point right into me!
It was blazing hot, 40ish degrees celcius, the sun was shining so bright it was glaring off the pavement and I was running with my eyes nearly shut, the air was so dry my nose and throat hurt...

After the first 400m (I estimate) of keeping up with the guys, I fell back and went into a slow jog.
And then my body started shutting down slowly, forcing me to walk.
At about 800m to 1km I was so far behind I could barely see the guys to find my way back.
I started taking short cuts in the shade and cutting across field and gravel.
When I blinked and re-opened my eyes I could barely see.. My vision was fading.
Forcing myself to walk fast in one of my shady short cuts, I could see that the guys were about to turn a corner and I was going to lose the trail soon.
I was desperate for water to rinse away the goop forming in my mouth, to cool my face, arms, and everything else.
I started looking around for a bathroom, or anyone driving past to see if I could catch a ride back.

... And then someone came back to look for me.
He was waving me on to the trail, but I could barely walk by then, my chest hurt, and I was nearly passing out.
I was having a heatstroke but I didn't know it at the time.
I followed him the best I could, and took a few more short cuts.

When I was about 800m away from the starting/finishing point, I spotted my husband who came back for me!
All I wanted to do then was to just get water and perhaps lie flat on the floor for the next 5 hours, so I tried my best to walk quickly back to where we came from without passing out.
I mean, it was already bad enough that I was finishing a 2.4km "run" in like 25 minutes so I was really determined to at least arrive conscious!

FINALLY, I reached the cool air-conditioned building, barely able to walk straight and still clinging on desperately to the edge of consciousness.
I let my husband lead me to the bathroom where I quickly rinsed my mouth and then made a beeline for my water bottle.
I instantly felt so much better in the air conditioning and with some water in my system.
Did I mention that the weather was so dry I didn't even break out a sweat throughout my entire ordeal?!
I only started perspiring when I was in the bathroom!
Anyway, that aside, since I was feeling a lot better, we decided to go out and join the rest who were resting and chatting.

BIG MISTAKE.
After about a minute in the summer heat, I felt even worse than I did during the "run" and started blacking out.
My husband quickly bid farewell to everyone and guided me to the car...
Where my body decided to have a bit more fun and made me puke 3 times before letting me RIP on the passenger seat.
Only then did I figure out I was passing out from heatstroke. -_-

SO. Moral of the story: If you're going to be a sheltered baby who screeches in pain when the sun touches your skin for 2 seconds, DON'T make your first outdoor run in the desert during summer!

 ... This seems like TOO much dramatization for a simple 2.4km run! Doesn't it seem like I "ran" a marathon instead?!

The best part of the story?
The friend who asked my husband to join him for the run didn't turn up.
*FACEPALMS*

On the bright side, I found a way to not sun burn even without sunscreen.
I slapped on a whole crapload of moisturizer before going out in the sun and I didn't burn at all!
Not sure if it's the brand I used (Vaseline) or anything, but it is a great penetrating moisturizer so I guess it really helped. :)