Weston 4th of July 5K RR

Today, Mr. Docket and I ran the Weston 4th of July 5K in Weston, FL.  It was a nice and sunny, but hot and humid day, we had tons of fun, one ran her strongest 5K in the Summer, and the other one PRd.

Training:

This is Week 1 of marathon training for me.  I am training for Chicago and my coach created an awesome training plan for me.  I gotta be honest that when I read the plan, I skipped a heart beat and I gulped.  It will be challenging nonetheless but I'm up for it.  Having said that, the weather down here has been horrible.  Not the heat as much as the humidity.  I don't think I have run in anything less than 75 dewpoint at all and one of the runs was in 78 dewpoint.  All of my runs this week have been slow and painful.  But who cares about speed if you can perform on race day, right?  Which is why today's race was very important.

We had a nice dinner and some drinks, went to bed at 11am and woke up at 5:30am.  Or at least that's his story.  I went to bed at 11am, but fell asleep at 1am, woke up at 2, 3, and 4am.  Felt fine but I knew I have not been sleeping well all week.  Meh, story of my life.

Pre-Race:

We took both cars as hubby is working today and Weston is closer to his hospital than the house.  I left first and texted him to let him know the traffic into the park was hideous, to park outside in the grass and meet me at the starting line.  I was supposed to do 2 miles for warmup but the traffic took 45 minutes for me to park and I only had time to run 1/2 mile, find my husband and listen to the National Anthem.  He barely made it on time.

We took some pics before the race:

And we were off!

Docket's Race:

At the start, it was 87F (heat index) and 73 dewpoint at 7am.  This weather, especially the heat index, is not typical of July but more like August and September.  It was actually 10F higher than this race always had.  It was going to be a scorcher.

I started and immediately was boxed in by many runners.  The race had a record 1700 runners (a medium sized race for here) but the park and the route is very narrow (one lane only), so it was hard to weave in and out of the runners.  I immediately passed my target 5K heart rate (a problem I've been having all week in this weather), and I said fuck it, let's see if I can run this by effort, pass my normal HR and not get an asthma attack.  And if I get one, suck it. So, I was pushing and my HR was 185 for most of the race, 10 bpms higher than what I run during 5Ks.  Since by Mile 3 I was hoping the world would end, I think I paced it well.  I've never reached this HR without getting an asthma attack and today was the first time I ran a 5K at this high HR without even a peep from the chest.

As I pass Mile 1, I see my time was 8:30mm.  In that weather?  I'll take it.

After the turnaround, I turn my phone up to take a picture of hubby as he passes me by.  In typical Docket fashion, he was looking at his Garmin:

I finished Mile 2 in 8:28 and congratulate myself for not dying and not having an asthma attack yet.  At this point, there is a water station so I stopped, got two cups, threw one over my head and walk a bit while I drank the water.  It was very hot at this point and I am soaked.  I restart running and attempt to finish this race as hard as I can.  I finished Mile 3 in 8:52, reflecting the 15 seconds I took off at the water station.  So I was basically running even splits, great.

I finished the race and noticed I could break 27, so I tried to.  Crossed at 26:59, 17th out of 99 in my AG, and my fastest Summer 5K in years.

Mr. Docket's Race:

Mr. Docket just ran the SF 5K two weeks ago in 39:08.  I don't think we were expecting him to PR today, yet I saw him by Mile 1 in 12:20 or thereabouts and I was WTF is he doing?  He ran Mile 2 at 12:15 and Mile 3 at 11:50.  He ran it in 38:27, a PR by 31 seconds.  Here is him coming in:

I am actually surprised he woke up this early to race.  Very happy about his progress.

We met, drank water, and parted ways, so that he could go to work and I could run the rest of my workout (3.50 miles).  We are both very happy about our performances, and I am sure my coach will be happy with mine.  I have now proven to myself that I can run a 5K at a higher effort than I have been doing and still race it without signs of asthma.  I cannot wait until I race in October!