This was a tough day to run fast. When the dew point creeps past 70 and it's 72 degrees at the same time at 7:00 am, it's really tough to run fast. Humidity was 97%. That's just a physiological fact. The sweat your body produces to cool itself simply does not evaporate and falls to the ground while your body cooks and your shoes are soaked. I really couldn't believe my shoes were soaked on a mid-September morning, but indeed they were. It's really tough psychologically to accept this fact and still be ok with your time even though our coach told us not to worry about the time and just race. I didn't race too bad actually as I was 4th even with an Olympic Trials qualifier (O'Connor) and recent former NCAA D1 fast guys (Blake Taneff, and Daniel Samet. Jordan Tropf came out of nowhere in this race though.
We started nice and relaxed according to the game plan, just like I did at Shamrock when I ran a PR. I continued to hold back as the lead pack went ahead of Greg and I. We caught the pack at 3 miles after they slowed down but they picked it up again and we let them go, thinking at least 2-3 guys would fall back with the humidity being a big factor. I was well prepared with Generation UCAN and UCAN Hydrate which are great products.
I remained calm, running with Greg while Kieran was slowing falling back (he is an OT qualifier but has not been training a lot as he just had a kid). He said "come catch me" at the turnaround and I started digging into my effort reserves at which point, quite surprisingly, I dropped Greg, which has never happened before. I think the humidity got to him. Despite gunning it, I was actually slowing, just at a slower rate than those behind me. Taneff, although far ahead, was really dying and I was gaining as I myself began to die. Kept it together to see the clock which was frustratingly slow.
Despite the slow time I can feel it inside that I'm in shape to PR. I don't say that lightly, but I feel that I can run at least 2 minutes faster in ideal conditions, which I hope to have in October 16 in Columbus. Although I'm frustrated with the slow day, I'm headed in the right direction. Running is such an unforgiving sport whether you are a pro or an amatuer club guy like me and it still burns me that those young guys in 1-3 were able to beat me today.
Results
Article on the race
Interested to see how incredibly slow Rock and Roll Philadelphia was as well due to the heat. George was not wrong when he said we'd be 2-4 minutes off our PRs even though I didn't believe him at first. Even the Pros at philly were slow. Philly Results
soaked straight through and in pain at mile 12 or so
| 