Yesterday was hot, so very hot. So what was a good thing to do? Run a race! Right? No, I know. It was rough and hot, but the fiancée and I run this race every year. It’s in her hometown and there’s pizza at the end, how could we not do it?
Each year seems to be hotter than the previous one so this time I was smart and set my expectations a bit low. Given that we’re in the middle of a heatwave and the humidity is always awful in New Jersey in the Summer, I gave myself a goal of 22 minutes. I thought was fair for me and my ability.
I started off with a quick first mile (mostly uphill) at 6:35, but that wasn’t sustainable and I knew it. Even that first mile was hard with the humidity. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and I was pretty much willing to pay someone to inject some oxygen straight into my lungs. Being way ahead of where I wanted to be for the race, I decided to pull it back a bit, not that I really had a lot of say in the matter anyway. It was much more of my body’s decision than mine. It turned out that I pulled it back way too much and finished with a 7:15 minute/mile pace overall. That’s quite a drop for a 3.1 mile race.
Some days you just don’t have it and the weather has no interest in helping you out. Yesterday was one of those days. Even with all of that considered, I was pretty disappointed with my time. I’ll get over it though. I mean, that time still put me at 190 out of ~2200 runners. Not bad.
On the plus side though, the fiancée earned herself a PR at 23:50 (chip). Hot diggity!
On a side note, this was also the last run in my Vibram Five Fingers KSOs. They are officially retired now–from running, at least. They got me just about 470 miles of road running which isn’t half bad at all. They still could have some life in them, but a few of my toes have worn through and I can feel the asphalt through the holes. It’s time to move onto my second pair of Five Fingers, this time the Bikila model which is specifically designed for runners and has a bit of tread on the bottom.
Pace: 7:15 Overall time: 22:34 (gun) / 22:32 (chip)