Good afternoon all – happy Sunday and Happy Father’s Day! Love you Daddy!
How is your father’s day going? Mine started bright and early this morning with a race in Central Park – The Father’s Day Prostate Cancer 5-mile Run. The last time I ran a 5-mile race was in early January and the race conditioners were 100% different than today. The race started at 8:30 a.m. and in all honesty, I wish it had started a lot earlier. The heat and humidity were intolerable! Here was my race-day appearance.
It was already 80 degrees by the time I headed out of the house. I jogged to the start, hit the porta-potty and found my corral. As I stood in the corral waiting for the start, I began to think that this wasn’t going to be my best race. And I was right.
The race began and already I felt like I was struggling. We headed north along the West Drive and man did that first mile take forever. I kept checking my Garmin and being amazed by how little I had run. We hit the first mile marker and I managed to pick it up a bit from mile 1 to mile 2, but it hurt.
I struggled up all the hills and my breathing was a lot more labored than usual. Plus, choosing to wear a hat to shield my eyes also ended up making me hotter, I think. As we reached the third mile marker I hit up the fluid station for a much-needed guzzle of water.
From mile three to mile four I struggled again and watched the mileage slowly tick by on my watch. Finally we hit mile four and I knew there was only one to go, but man was I feeling it. The heat, the humidity, the crowd – it was all taking its toll.
Finally I spotted the finish area up ahead, but it was really a struggle to get to the end. I did not kick it in like usual – I basically threw myself over the finish in pure exhaustion. Here are my stats:
Mile 1 – 7:59
Mile 2 – 7:40
Mile 3 – 8:07
Mile 4 – 7:59
Mile 5 – 7:58
Total mileage: 5.06 miles in 40:12
So technically, this was a PR for me at this distance, but I ran the 10k in April much, much faster – so I’m not totally satisfied with these results. However, I have no one to blame by myself. Since the Pocono Marathon in May, I’ve enjoyed quite a running hiatus, so I am not in great shape right now. I’ve got some major work to do before the Boilermaker 15k in July.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!
Eat, Read, Run 
I still think you did awesome- but yes, I think I will be blaming the weather if I struggle through the next couple races I have planned. I mean… both are in July… it’s like I’m setting myself up for it! lol
You did great, espcially when you look at your splits. You may have felt bad, but you maintained your pace through the end. Good job!
Hey, 40 minutes isn’t bad! This weather has been killing me, though. Yesterday it was 96 at 9 am and the humidity was suffocating. There was a father’s day 2 mile race locally (I didn’t run it since it was just 2 miles) but I saw all these poor little overheated kids getting ice packs on their heads and sipping fluids!
Congrats on a great race- yesterday was SO hot and humid! Cute race day attire! I have been contemplating getting a ventilated hat for the boilermaker- you think it made you hotter? If so, that would defeat my purpose in buying it 😉 Have a great Monday! 😀