Running on the Sun

If you randomly picked three blog posts since I've been doing this, chances are you'll get one that has me complaining about the heat.  My nemesis.  Well, it least it seems that way.  Now that I think of it, I wonder if I've ever complained about it being too cold to run.  Hmmm.

This week's race is the Duo at the Ledge.  Last year, this was one of my favorite races because the start time was 6 am.  What a great concept, run a race before the summer heat comes out!  For that reason, had to do it again.  Only problem, Murphy's Law apparently was pissed that I found a loophole last year, because this year he decided to turn up the heat.  At 3 am, leaving for the race, it was already 75 outside.  Race start, 77 and the humidity made the air feel heavy, this is going to be miserable!

The phrase "Don't die" came from a couple of friends.  My plan was simple, start out much slower than my race pace, get to the halfway point then evaluate from there.  Sometimes my mind works very quickly, this was one of those times, because by mile four I had already made up my mind, this race was nothing more than pure survival.  I watched a fairly big group of people head out fast, I assumed by the half way point, they'd be dropping like flies, and I planned on dictating my pace based on how many I caught up to.  At mile four, I knew this going to be an awful race.  At mile six, I only had caught one person who was whipped, this is when I decided there was no point to even try to place, because they weren't dropping like I thought they would.  At mile eight, this is where I shut it down.  Even at a much slower pace, the heat finally really started to get to me.  Without catching anybody, I decided there's no real point risking anything, so for the last five miles became a walk/run combination.

Ever since starting running and being able to do the distance, I've never ran an over a two hour half marathon.  I remember some awful runs in the snow and ice, still under two hours.  I really expected even in the heat, to do about 1:50.  Couldn't do it, it was just brutal.  Being over two hours was really depressing, but I was still 5th in my age division, which I guess isn't bad.  CT finished just behind me, when we went to check the results, her eyes lit up.  I didn't have high hopes because last year we had such a good run and it seemed like so many people were ahead of us.  Well, all the people ahead of us, none were in her age group!  CT is now the queen of the Ledge, two years, two first place finishes.  I already know, she is going to want to run it again next year to keep her streak going.

Didn't die.  Didn't have a good race, but alive to run another day!