Roundup

The Marathon Sports 5 Miler last Thursday went pretty well. It was an interesting race, starting and stopping on the grass. It began on the field, went for about 100 yards before taking a 90 degree turn to the left, down a short but steep hill, and then funneled everyone through a gate before hitting the pavement. It had been raining all day so the threat of falling on the grass was definitely in the back of my mind as we pushed and bumped our way during the start. I should also mention that the lawn had been recently mowed so before the race even began my shoes were completely covered in grass.

The clock at the first mile read 5:56 as I passed it. That was 5K pace, way too fast. The next four miles were all about toughing it out. Right around mile 4 I have never wanted to throw up during a race more than I did at that moment. I couldn't wait to get to the end at that point. With about a half mile left the race moved onto the grass for the final push to the track where it ends. I could have done without that, the uneven ground was just what I didn't want as I struggled through the end of the race. I did manage to pass a few people during this stretch so I guess it was ok. Crossed the finish strong and saw that I had managed a 31:40. Very happy about that.

Took a couple of days off and then hit the roads again on Sunday for a lazy 8 miles before heading off to a pool party for my niece's first birthday party. That pool was freakin' cold! I have no idea how kids could stay in it for so long.

Monday I held off on my tempo run until the evening hoping that the temperature would ease up a bit. It did, about 4 degrees, but the humidity rose about 10% so nothing really changed. Yesterday I decided to cut the mileage to 4 miles because of the humidity and ran around the Charles. That was actually kind of nice and I clocked a pretty fast time without even worrying about my pace the whole run. I love when that happens. Off to do some more mileage tonight as soon as Jen gets home. Again, I was hoping the humidity would drop but that isn't going to happen. That isn't too bad, it's just the uncontrollable dripping after I stop that gets to me. Eew.