Bay Days 5 miler

Well even though it was purely for training, I did enter a race on July 4th so I might as well whip up a quick race report from the Bay Days 5 miler.

Woke up at 6:15, a few minutes before my alarm. I take that as a good sign that my internal clock is still well programmed. Brushed my teeth, drank a cup of water and decided to climb back into bed. Bad move as didn't wake up again until 7:25 - 65 minutes before the race was supposed to start. Luckily I had laid out my gear the night before. So I threw on some clothes, grabbed a bottle of Gatorade, and out the door I went.

As I pull into the parking lot, the rain started to come down in buckets. Said hi to Jodi safely nestled in her vehicle. Then I jogged over to where registration was, gave them a few bucks, and then hit the little boys room. My urine was telling me what I already figured out - I was dehydrated. So now it's about 8:20, I ran back to my car, strapped on my shoes and race number, took a few gulps of Gatorade and then meandered over to the starting line. I snaked my way through and said hi to a few familiar faces. I was talking with one of my former swim buddies and next thing you know a siren goes off and people were running already.

And off I go. I wanted to start out slow since my legs were tucked in bed a little over an hour ago. I started weaving through the masses as I picked up a little steam and crossed the 1 mile mark at 7:18. Crap, that was slow.

So I pick it up into mile two. I'm passing people at a pretty steady rate now as I moved through in 6:33. By now the sun was beating down on the wet pavement and making our lives uncomfortable.

At the start of mile three, I was getting pretty hot. I thought about Rob who pulled out of IM CdA a few weeks ago. I had to shed my technical tee and fumbled a bit trying to tuck it into my shorts. This slowed me down as I clocked in at 6:48, but I was really struggling to control the body temp with the tee on.

Having started the race dehydrated and then cruising through the heat and humidity, I thought to myself at what point does the body start shutting things down to save itself? I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I backed it off a notch as I remembered I was going biking afterwards. Mile four clocked in at 6:55.

So one more mile to go. This is where I can typically make up some serious ground. I know I can kick from at least 3/4 of a mile out, but kept it conservative. I cruised for a while, kicked it in when I got to the track with 300 meters left and finished with a 6:25.

The posted results said 34:01.07, 5th in AG/74th overall. Decent. I'll take it.

What do I need to do in the future?

Hydrate. Take a crap before racing. Hydrate. Get some more sleep. And Hydrate.

Congrats to Jodi for taking home a pretty sweet looking age group award!!!