You're killing me Femi!

Once again, my so called "friend" Femi talked me into another race I wasn't planning on. This one was the Ashburn Twilight Festival 4 Miler held on the evening of June 28. Dori was in Pittsburgh and I didn't have anything else going on so I figured "why not". As you'll see, I should have said "Why?"

I should have known it wasn't going to go well. First, it took forever to get to the race site. It is well past Dulles. I think the GPS said it was about 35 miles from my house. Second, it was steamy hot. I mean 92 in the shade and very humid. I was soaked just standing in line to enter the race and to get my shirt (the shirt was nice by the way).

I saw Femi before the start and he said he was going to run with a triathalon friend and expected to take it easy. This was his first non-5K race so he didn't know what to expect.

The course was a 2 loop course. The first 1/2 mile of each loop was downhill but the rest was either flat or a very modest uphill. So I cant fault the elevation of the course. The problem was the lack of shade. As mentioned before, it was sunny and humid and the concrete and asphalt was just reflecting the heat back up at us. I was really suffering as I completed the first loop. I got down to the bottom of the hill and decided enough was enough. My heart felt "funny", which for me means I thought I may have had an irregular heartbeat. It had been a few years since I had last been hospitalized with this problem and I had been pretty good about taking my medicine. Nonetheless, I was concerned. I decided to walk my way in. Even then, I was passed by other walkers and I felt tired walking up the modest hills. I couldn't have been happier to finish a race. I would say this was my 2nd worst race behind only the Sea Isle 10 miler last year, where I think I probably did come pretty close to heat exhaustion.

I heard a lot of runners dropped out after the first loop. Looking at the results, it looks like about 70 people did the smart thing and walked off the course. I was stubborn and stayed out, mostly because I was behind my required pace to get to 50 races for the year and didn't want to lose 1 that I was already in. I ended up finishing in 470th out of 481 males that finished the whole race and out of 551 total male competitors. (Note: 413 women finished the 4 miles and 477 finished at least 2 miles. I beat 95 women. This was clearly a tough race for most). My official chip time was 55:44. Yes, that's right...its worse than many of my 5 miles times. Not good at all. I'm hoping that it makes me stronger for the long haul though.

Notable finishers were:
Steve Crane 19:46 Male winner (Wow!!)
Samia Akbar 22:27 Female Winner
Emily Gousen 23:59 3rd woman (I've run in a fe races with her. Fast)
Jim Moreland 27:54 (He's running well-he won his age group)
Bill Stahr 28:33
Jay Wind 28:42
Karen Young 30:26 3rd in her age group...good work
Jon Palks 32:40
Michael "Femi" Adeniji 32:53
John Winkert 40:47
Barry Goldmeier 44:17 (joggler)
Bob Gurtler 44:18