Summer Night 5K Race Recap

   This past Friday, I ran in the Summer Night 5K, one in the London Honda Road Race series. 

Just before the start of the race. One of the
course marshals said I had the best t-shirt!

   It does not get any more "summer night" than it was that evening---temp was about 26C and I'm pretty sure the humidity was at 100 per cent. It was one of those nights you could reach out and touch the air, if you know what I mean.
   I had not trained for this race. In fact, I had run only three times in the last three months. As previously explained, the last little while has been taken up with playing ball hockey a couple of nights a week and this left little room for extra running, at least for the most part. By the end of the season I was beginning to feel as if my legs might actually accommodate both kinds of running, so good for me!
   One of the cool things about the race was that my Sweetie, Doralyn, and two of my three stepsons, Callum and Quin, were there to cheer me on. They saw me off at the start line and were there waiting for me at the soggy and gasping end! The other cool thing is that this race has much more of a party atmosphere than any of the others and starts off from a bar downtown, The Barking Frog!

Me, with a bemused look and
Callum, my stepson. Don't think either
of us knew our pics were being taken...

   I basically had no plan or strategy around this race. I knew I'd be unable to run the whole thing and therefore was quite willing to incorporate walking breaks. On the last training run I'd done, I'd tried to do 10 and 1's but that had broken down after the first 10 and 1! So last night I figured I'd start with a 10 and 1 and then use shorter run and walk breaks.
   Well, this broke down as well. Essentially, I ended up running until I got tired and then I walked until I felt like I could run again. This meant a lot of walking.

A last-minute "I love You!" for Doralyn,
just before the start of the race.

   As with most races, pretty soon you end up running in a pack with runners who are relatively at the same experience or fitness level. About half a kilometer into the thing, a woman all of the sudden was running beside me as if she were attached to my left elbow. She didn't appear interested in talking or even running at a different pace, she never ran ahead and never fell behind. It occurred to me at one point that maybe she found me running at a comfortable pace for her and was happy just to use me as a pace bunny (giggle). This was more than fine with me, though. She was (and still is, I presume) a very short and compact lady and I assumed that eventually I would just pull away from her and finish ahead. As the race went on and my pace wavered from faster to slower and then back again, she would then end up either slightly behind or ahead of me. In the final kilometer, however, she was joined by a couple of non-racers who then ran with her on to the finish. At this point, she slowly pulled away and finished pretty far ahead of me. I'm thinking this was a woman who'd come to this race with a plan and some support and it had all worked out wonderfully for her. I caught up to after the race and congratulated her on a job well done!

One of the race organizers is just to my right
in this pic. We had just exchanged a sweaty
high five at the end of the race and I think he's
wondering if he needs to call medical staff...lol

   As for myself and my own performance, I will blame the heat and humidity and I will blame the lack of training and I will also (at least a little) blame ball hockey. 
   Now, though, there are no extra sports to sap my energy and I can get down to the business of really training. My time for this race (I am sad and embarrassed to say) was 41:26. I now have 41:26 to beat the next time I am out on a run. My plan will be to continue with trying to implement timed walking and running intervals and then slowly change the length of them until I get back to the point of being able to run a whole 5K all at once. Which I was able to do not all that long ago! Wish me luck!