Breakfast Club: Heat Waves

breakfast club
running, ideas, culture

There is a nakedness to the heat in California.

The fog abates, the sun heightens, and the west coast reveals itself to be a desert but for the cooling mists that roll off the Pacific.

Weather has a duality here, hinging upon the amount of water in the air at any given moment. With rain, California is lush, green, edenic. Without it, there is an ambient starkness that catches you off guard.

Get caught on the leeward side of an exposed ridge and the breeze stagnates. Dust kicks off the trail in parching clouds and sunrays arrow carcinogenically into your arms and shoulders. The throat parches quickly and sweat dries fast and salty on your brow.

I’ll never quite get used to it—the thirsty intensity of warm weather here. In summer I continually make mistakes of estimation: running a few ounces shy of enough water, starting an hour too late in the morning, opting for trails with not quite enough shade.

Recently, I did a long effort along the East Bay Skylin…