Ok, so I've kinda slacked a bit. Somebody asked me last week how my race went and I realized that I had not posted my results and overall thoughts to my blog (which I clearly stated I would here).
The race was "good". It was so hot that day. I think it was like 95 degrees Fahrenheit with 95% humidity and there was no escaping the heat. Before the race, I did about 10 minutes of jogging and stretching hoping that I could do real good with this "new approach". I was already drenched in sweat by the time the race started, but I was convinced that I stayed very hydrated. I took a few drinks from Jen's warm bottles of water. I finished stretching and warming up about 5 minutes before the race started and I just stood there like an idiot shaking my legs and arms because I didn't know what else to do. :) I guess this is what runners do before races because everybody else was doing it too. So... yes, it's safe to say that we were all being idiots. :P
The race was an easy "out and back" course, meaning that it goes out for 1.55 miles and you have to turn around and cross the starting line to finish. I thought it sounded easy enough and I was ready to go. There were no clouds in the sky, the sun was right in front of us and the pavement was pulsating heat waves up in the distance. Hell, I can handle this!
When the race started, I kept up with the crowd pretty good. My first mile was 7 minutes and 20 seconds. This was really good and I was excited to try and do my "sub 25 minute" race, but the first mile really drained me. They had the water table right before the first mile and I didn't think I needed any so I just ran right past them thinking there would be another one up the road. About 50 yards from the water station I started to get cold chills and I could feel my skin get cold. I knew this wasn't good because (like I said) it was so hot that day. I realized I was in a bit of a pickle at this point. I decided to back off a bit and catch my breath and try to cool down.
My second mile was 8 minutes 44 seconds. This is much better than my training pace, but very slow for my race pace. What sucks is that my condition was getting worse. My mouth was all dry and my head started to hurt. I knew I was dehydrating fast and I was loosing steam even faster. My side hurt and my legs were starting to get stiff on me. I wanted to stop and walk the rest of the way so bad, but I just pushed through it. I could see the water table up in the distance, so that was my mental "check point". When I got up there, I grabbed the water and tried to drink it........... HOW DO PEOPLE DO THIS!!! I basically got it all over my face, up my nose, and all down my shirt; I probably only got down like 2 drops. Even then it wasn't refreshing because I had to try and swallow it down between my compulsive gasping for air. Needless to say, it didn't help much. I was still ready to walk the rest of the way and I had about 1 more mile to go.
Stubborn as I am, I pushed through the 3rd mile as lots of people passed me. What was worse was that the race started (and therefore ended) with a bunch of up and down hills. The finish line was at the top of a huge hill and I probably could have crawled up it faster on a good day than I did running up it on this day. My last 1.1 mile was a stellar 10 minutes and 20 seconds. But hot damn, it was over.
My total time was 26 minutes and 24 seconds. I learned a lot from this race! The number one thing I learned is that I need to figure out how to drink and run for the next race. :) Which (BTW) I have 2 BIG races lined up for the fall: a 20K and a 1/2 Marathon. Those ought to be some interesting blog posts. :O
No comments:
Post a Comment