Beat the Heat 5K race report

On Saturday (July 23rd–yes, once again, I’m way behind the times!) I ran the Beat the Heat 5K for the first time.

It’s put on by my running club, the Twin City Track Club, and my overall assessment was Great Race!  However, the heat made it nearly unbearable for me, so I’m not sure I’ll run it again.  I might be a spectator/volunteer at the next one.  It falls during the same month as a favorite of mine, our hometown’s Kernersville 4th of July 5K, that I ran last year and in 2012.  So if it came down to it, I’d probably pick the 4th of July 5K (flatter, morning race, hometown).  But this one was still Great fun!

My friends and former Army crew teammates PR and KS drove down from Virginia to spend the night with us, and also to race!  J and I were excited to host them, and the race became a fun “adults-only” outing, as we left the kids home with our baby-sitter.

J picked up our packets from Fleet Feet on Friday, so all we had to do on Sat. was hydrate and fuel up!  I had some of my Bai Blueberry drink (yum!) and half a banana, with a slice of toast + peanut butter, around 4 PM.  The race started at 7, so 3 hours to digest is perfect.  That’s one good thing about evening races!  I had spent the morning cleaning but felt decently rested.  Since it was in the 90’s, I went with my purple Oiselle bra and light purple Lululemon shorts, plus headband.  Ended up working perfectly!  I also brought a bag of ice cubes, so I could pre-cool my body prior to the race.  That ended up being a great idea!

We left the house around 5:30 and got the Wake Forest University stadium complex before 6, so we had an hour to kill.  We found the stadium was open (the interior portion) so we had access to indoor bathrooms, as well as A/C, which proved VERY nice on this super hot evening.  We sat around, stretched and chatted, and headed outside at 6:30 to watch the kids’ fun run.  As we watched, we cooled off with the ice cubes and did a very abbreviated warm up, since it was in the 90’s already.

At last, it was 7 PM and go time!  I had hopes of running as strong as possible, despite the heat, so I told myself to be tough and go for it!

Mile 1 was 7:16.  Oops, a bit fast!  I thought, wow if I could keep up that pace, I’d run a PR!  But I knew in the heat, it was very unlikely.  I grabbed water and dumped it on myself… but it was warm 🙁

I slowed down significantly in Mile 2… hills + heat = no beuno for me!  No downhills during this mile, only uphill.  I had a small sense of comfort, as the course was suddenly familiar–the same portion of mile 2 of the Turkey Strut.  I did my best to just hang in there, and stay with the girl in front of me.  Mile 2 time was 8:25.

I wanted to finish strong, although I felt like I was running in a furnace.  Mile 3 had another little hill, but I was ready for it.  I passed a lot of people, and headed down the final half mile or so.  I felt eternally grateful to whoever set up the sprinklers that we could run through!  Absolutely sucking wind at the end, Mile 3 was 7:45 and the final 0.14 was 54 seconds (avg moving pace of 6:02!)  Despite the odds… I beat the heat! 🙂  Overall time, 24:20.

Here’s the course and some stats:

I waited a few moments, and along came Pam.  The next day was her 30th birthday, so it was the last time she’d run in the 25-29 age group.  Turns out, she got 3rd place!  I ended up in 2nd, but again I only missed first place by 12 seconds.  Things like that just make me want to train harder!  But I realized July was a short training month, after taking a good week off to rest after Ultimate Runner, then another week off when we went to PA.  And lastly, running in the 90’s isn’t something I do very often.  So I couldn’t be too upset!  Plus, I ended up 16th of 253 females overall, so that’s in the top 10%.  Huge improvement from years past.

We grabbed bananas, oranges, pretzels, beer, Gatorade, burgers, fries… yeah, it was a feast!

We stuck around until 8 to watch the elites.  It was amazing to see such speed and talent.  Donnie Cowart won the men’s race in 14:44 (say whaaaaaat?!!) and the women’s winner Sarah Rapp ran 16:52.  Donnie just came back from the Olympic Trials in Eugene in the 3K steeplechase, so I enjoyed watching him.  My Oiselle teammate (and I use teammate loosely as she’s in the Haute Volée and I’m a mere age grouper) Andie Cozzarelli came in 4th in 17:30.  Full results here.

In all, a very fun (albeit hot as &*$!) race.  Definitely enjoyed sharing the experience with hubby and friends.  We celebrated with custard from Wolfie’s, because why not?

Here’s my 2nd place cup, plus the free New Balance socks Javi got (the women’s were purple and mine were already in my drawer).

Thanks for reading!!  Up next is the Ramblin’ Rose Tri on 8/21 🙂