Wow, summer is flying by! I meant to finish this post last weekend, and here it is Tuesday finally getting around to it. Sigh. Here it goes – The OH / MI 8k race is a “battle for the border” race, where you start in Ohio, race into Michigan, and finish in Ohio. It’s a fun race that my family has run for many years now. This year the kids didn’t go, but in years past they have run the 8K and got age group awards. This year it was just Alan and I, with lots of our runner friends. The course is square, and along the cornfields and farm roads 🙂 It does offer food and drinks with the race entry, along with a band afterwards and plenty of time to hang out with our friends.
Great race shirts, and a fun night! (beer, lots and lots of great beer!!) You even got to pick your color race shirt – OH or MI! (or whatever color looks best on you… like I did)
When thinking about a recap of this race, I was wondering if “sweatfest” or “suckfest” was the better description. “Strugglebus” would be also appropriate. Let me explain… this race starts at 7:30pm. And it’s in July. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this… it was hot. It was humid. I went out for my “warm up” mile and by the time I was done, sweat was dripping off my face. Not the best way to start a race! 81 degrees at race start, with the evening sun burning.
My overall pace was 9:12 – which doesn’t sound too bad for a hot night, but let’s break that down…. When the gun went off, I was just following the crowd – surprised when I looked down at my watch mid-mile and saw 8:03! It didn’t feel that fast. I also knew I wanted to be slower. First mile was 8:19. Last year I ran this with 8:28 overall pace. I haven’t been running that many miles so I figured I would be happy with any “8:” in my time, figuring it would be closer to 8:59.
The next mile slowed a bit at 8:50 which I was happy with. By the time I got to almost mile 3, I had to walk. You know that little voice in your head that says “this would be a great time to just start walking”? Oh yeah, I agreed with it. The heat was all consuming and I was flat out exhausted!! mile 3, 9:25
Then I played that little game… “I’ll keep running, and then walk again in the next mile.“ Which quickly turned into “I’ll walk at the next half mile” and finally became “It’s only been .2 of a mile? Good enough. I’m walking again.“ Mile 4, 9:49
By this time I had seen all of the people in my Dave’s PR5K training group pass me. Yeah them!! I gave them a word of encouragement as they passed. I saw ladies from my Moms Run this Town group passing me too. Yea, just go ahead. I’ll catch up. Oh sure.
Finally, it got to the last .25 miles and I could see the finish line. Yes, it’s now time to RUN!! Last partial mile came in at 9:35 (race was 4.9 miles).
I took look back at my Garmin data and my heart rate hit a high of 200 bpm, with 179 as the average. Even with the walking I was having a rough time so it was a good thing I was taking walk breaks.
My best race time for this course was 8:04, back in 2014. 2014 was pretty much a banner year for me in which I BQ’d and ran a PR in every distance. However, I was trained, and I was doing good. This year, I’ve only run around 13 miles a week for the last month. Nothing like those 50+ mile weeks I was logging during marathon training! It’s important to put it all into perspective.
Another positive – I did enjoy a “date night” with Alan, and got to hang out with a lot of friends from my Moms/She Run This Town group. That’s always a good thing 🙂
So another OH/MI race is in the books. I’m glad I wasn’t overwhelmed with hammy & glute pain, but I was bummed I had to walk so much. Feeling very under-trained at this point and wonder how I’m going to get back in shape for my upcoming Columbus half training. Something has to change. One step at a time I guess.
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Q: Did you run the 8K? How did you do??
Q: Had any rough races lately?
Q: Do you ever dump water on your head during a race?
I would have, but I didn’t want to ruin my iPod Shuffle!!
Despite the sucky conditions, I actually had a pretty good 8k race. I paced several of the runners I’m coaching so I wanted their first 8k to be a good experience. By product is that you don’t want to let them down and you don’t want them to see their coach go down in flames, so you dig deep and soldier on.
The Muddy 1/2 was my most worst (also might need grammar lessons) lol in forever. Hot humid and only 6 days post Ragnar!!
Dumped water twice in the 8k. Down the back of my neck and it ran down my back. Feels great in the hot humid races.
You did have a good race! Thanks for reminding me about the coach going down in flames. Ha!!! I think I’ll need to stop wearing such bright clothes so I just blend in with the crowds and the people in my coaching group won’t recognize me. 😉
I think you did great!
Heat is tough and it saps up a lot of energy. Pain free and beer at the end is a pretty good run on hot night in July!
I felt exactly the same way at my last half about too much walking, I do get it. In the end it is just running and my walk breaks helped me to really overall enjoy the experience…and not over heat 🙂
In summer I keep my phone in a bag so I can run through sprinklers anytime I pass one lol
Thanks, it was a challenge. Better to be walking then hauled off the course by the meds!! I did see one runner on the course who had heat exhaustion (I think) who almost passed out. She looked really bad. I heard she was OK after some rest.
I got an email about this race, but summer races are the worst. I don’t know how anyone does them and has a good time in the heat and humidity. Maybe next year I’ll head down and try to beat your Ohio runners 🙂
Depending on where you clip your shuffle, mine has survived numerous cups of water and even some heavy rain. I wear mine on my hip so it is fairly protected from the cups of water.
Heather [is probably running] recently posted…Base building: done!
Summer races are hard! The party afterwards makes up for the rough running 🙂
I do wear my Shuffle on my hip. Maybe next time I’ll take a chance on it. My husband has ruined so many of his with sweating on them, I get a bit concerned when water is involved!
…down in flames! Lol. Sorry! The difference is you didn’t volunteer to Pace your runners to a Tempo pace on the hottest day on the year! Atvleast if felt that way! Rookie mistake on my part!
Ugh I could feel the heat as you described this race! Summer nights can get so hot.
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