First race in who knows how long.... (Read 324 times)

Two months ago a friend and I decided we needed to do something constructive, so we decided to train for a race. He's in LA, and I'm in Indy, so we just picked races on the same weekend. Outrun the Sun is a very well put together 5 mile to raise awareness of melanoma and other skin cancers which starts at a sticky 7 pm. Only problem with that is that its in INDIANA in JUNE. That compounded with the large amounts of rain we had here, including a lot of flooding in the area that morning made it a pretty interesting. The sun was out by 2 pm and the temp and humidity went nuts. Started with a co-worker who said he was hoping to do 8 minute miles, which was my goal too, so I decided to start with him. About 1/2 mile in it happened, I heard the voice inside asking what in the hell I thought I was doing, and ignored it. Well, I missed mile 1's marker and the only reason I knew it was close was Randy saying two words, "Too Fast". I felt good so I ignored it. I got to mile two and saw the marker, looked at the watch and almost quit right there. 15'06"!!! WHAT?!? By this point I had started to let Randy go, he was running really strong and I didn't see him slowing down anytime soon. Me on the other hand..... Small hills seemed endless, the downhills seemed like level at best, it was bad. After I lost Randy, a guy came up from behind me and he was running fairly well, so I got on his shoulder and we ran together. We got to mile 3's water station and walked for about 15-20 yards, I looked back at him and said lets go, he was game, so we went. Mile 4 was hard. We were on the west side of the White River heading north, kind of looking at the sun. IT WAS HOT!!!! I was probably 200 yards from the bridge crossing the White and I could see Randy half way across it. I was jealous as hell. Oh well, I still had over a mile to go. I left my new friend at about 4.25ish. Made the last turn and immediately could see the blow up finish line. It looked like a 1/2 mile tops. I was wrong. It was 3 miles if it was a foot. God if never got closer. I got to where I could see the clock and it read 39'05". I knew there was no chance of getting under 40', and every attempt to grab another gear and stride out were squashed right away. No kick, just a slow coast in. I had me in 40'14" which to be honest I was still pretty excited about. Not bad, I had hoped for under 40, but considering the heat and my inability to pace myself, I'll take it. 107 out of 454. Better than i would have thought. Running is almost getting fun again. Looking for some other good runs in the Indy area this summer, maybe a sprint tri, and perhaps the Indy Half in October, we'll see. PS - My friend who wanted to do 8 mm??? Yeah, he finished in 37:44. Geesh!!