Not Your Typical 5K

Boy, was this race a nightmare. I guess they weren't kidding with the name "Not Your Typical." The course and weather were unbearably bad. Mind you -- we're from Florida -- so the CT heat at the 6:45 PM start of this race should have been something we could laugh off, but not today. It was 85 degrees at the start and somewhat humid, conditions that were more challenging than virtually all of our races in Florida, which are held in the early morning with temps ranging in the 70s. But wait, that's not all. The terrain of the course certainly was not "typical" and it was a painful reminder that "We weren't in Jacksonville anymore." The course took us on a treacherous journey up long, steep hills followed by more long, steep hills. I pushed hard in the first mile but only mustered a slow 6:33, and it only got worse from there. After climbing another steep hill (10% grade), I reached the halfway point and took the effort down a notch so I could at least salvage a decent tempo run. The second mile was utterly miserable, giving me a record slow split for 2009 -- a 7:18. Now my quads were feeling like ground beef, so I welcomed the "too little, too late"downhill with half a mile to go. I finished in 21:23, running a 6:49 last mile. I was more mad than exhausted, yet still a little content that I had a PR from last week. Dad, on the other hand, looked more pissed than ever and his time demonstrated how miserable the course was with him running a 23:28, his slowest time for a road 5K in years, and two minutes slower than his PR from March of this year in Jacksonville (on a flat course with temps in the 60s). At the finish line, and for the next few hours, Dad was consumed by a spontaneous and "Not Your Typical" bout of Turret's Syndrome, swearing like a sailor and hating life. Both of us were in PR shape, each of us having logged our highest mileage of the year on killer CT hills for the past two weeks (with some speed work) and yet we managed to find the only course on the Eastern Seaboard where our hard work did not yield the results we deserved. Since we had no reason to stick around and stew in our misery, we got out of there lickety split after snagging some cold and hard pizza and warm watermelon. And once we got back to the car, we saw the finishing temperature was 83 degrees at 7:30, a painful punctuation mark to our futile and frustrating outing. All in all, a waste of $50 and an especially tough setback for Dad who is trying to rebound from his two-week illness in June and regain his race-day confidence.

Next race on the calender for me anyway is the Tour de Pain 5K, a precursor to cross-country season where I will be gunning to improve my PR. The race comes on the coattails of my week at Princeton Cross Country Camp (Aug. 2-6) so I should be primed and ready to PR. As of now, it's the day before departure for my vacation and I'm planning for two weeks of higher mileage in the mid-40s. So long and feel free to comment!