HHHH Long Run

Hot, humid, hazy, and (somewhat) hilly. Pretty much sums up my 7-mile long run this morning. As I hoped, it did serve the purpose of probably being good prep for the Boilermaker. But boy, was it hot!
Normally when I do my morning long runs, I head to a nearby town where it is almost perfectly flat, and I go early in the morning. I couldn't do either of those today - the nearby town was having a major antiques festival, meaning lots of traffic, and my husband had an ambulance call this morning (he's a volunteer medic) with a one-hour transport each way to a trauma center, so I didn't get to start my run until right about 10:30. So, I just headed into the village that I live outside of, which is relatively flat, but on the outskirts has some medium hills. Since it was so hot and humid, I decided to choose a course that would allow me to pass by my car a couple of times for water.
Overall, the run went fine, but I probably went a bit too fast. The problem was that I started right in the village, where there were lots of people around heading to church (I'm sure they thought I was a heathen - hey, another H!), and in this town the odds of not seeing someone you know in that situation are almost zero. And for some reason I always run a little faster when I see people I know, or think I'm going to (am I the only one who does this?). Sure enough, I passed by my son's first grade teacher heading to church within about the first 2 minutes. I was feeling strong, and did my first 2 miles at a sub-11:00 pace, which is fast for me. Encountering hills along the way, including a killer one (about 12% grade) at about the half-way point, slowed me down a bit, but I still ended up averaging 11:22 pace for the whole run (just under 1:20 total time). I felt pretty zonked during the last couple of miles, but luckily recovered pretty quickly with some water and a banana I'd brought in the car. But while I was out there, it was hard to imagine pressing even harder, and for longer, in a month for the Boilermaker. I am definitely hoping that 1) I get more used to heat and humidity between now and then; and 2) the crowd support makes a big difference!