Memorial Day 20K: Who's Idea Was This, Anyway??

While driving to the race at 6:00 am, we spotted one of those time/temperature signs...it read 79 degrees....at 6:00 am. I took that as a bad sign, certainly not something that one wants to see on the morning of a 20K race. But, as you know, we run in all weather and have faced more daunting conditions than this (Hello, Grasslands Trail Half, anyone?).

We arrived at White Rock and it seemed like a nice morning, the sun was coming up and there was a nice breeze coming off of the lake. I knew that this illusion of a nice day would fade as soon as the running started. This was a smaller race and we spotted several familiar faces fairly quickly. Mark O., my awesome "man in skirt" from Heels and Hills rolled in and immediately began taking pictures. We also ran into Rustin, a tuba player from my wind ensemble (shameless plug--Met Winds summer movie concert June 20, 7:30, Meyerson, be there). One of my favorite things about running is all of the interesting and fun people that I have met along the way.


Here I am before the sweatfest.

The race started rather abruptly--a guy shouted brief instructions about the course and then yelled "Go!" and we were off and running. I settled into a nice pace and felt pretty good for the first 3-4 miles. Erik started ahead of me, then we ran together some, and then he took off again. The first half of the race was fairly flat, but I ran this one last year and remembered some significant hills in the middle sections. Erik is a super strong hill runner and that is were I lost him, he was getting stronger as I was fading.

I was hot but felt okay for the first 8-10 miles, and my pace was right on target (sub 9:00 minute miles). The last 3-4 miles were another story--I could feel myself slowing down, getting thirstier, and my mind was filling with all sorts of whining and self-doubt. Who's idea was this anyway....oh yeah, it was mine....dang. I wanted nothing more but to just walk, crawl, swim through White Rock Lake to the finish line. Because this was a small race, I felt all alone for long stretches--no other runners in sight! I thought of all kinds of funny titles and whitty things to say in this blog, but forgot all of them as soon as I crossed the finish line. Trail of Sweat and Sweatfest 20K are the only ones that come to mind now. I must have been looking a little whipped because towards the end cyclists and other runners were cheering me on telling me that I was almost done and that I could do it.

I finished in 1:56:35, a full 5:30 slower than my goal for the day and way off of my PR pace. I was somewhat frustrated with my time and even a little embarrassed, but also accept that it is summer and PRs are going to be a little bit harder to come by. The good news is that I ran this race 8 minutes faster than when I ran it one year ago. While it was nothing to brag about, if I can improve by 8 minutes every year then I will be thrilled.