Vampires scared by lightning-postpone event

July 25, 2009

Tonight marked the second running of the Crystal City Twilight 5K, sponsored by Pacers. I thought it was well run last year so I looked forward to participating again. It did have a high entry fee ($40) but that included a very nice technical t-shirt that I would certainly spend $20 on so I figured it was worth it. Plus, they had beer at the finish!

A pretty heavy rain began to fall about 20 minutes before the start of the race. I was already a little worried about my gimpy right ankle and the thought of slipping on wet roads made me more uncomfortable. So I went off in search of a drug store to buy an ace bandage. Unfortunately, Crystal City largely shuts down on weekends and the one store I was able to reach was closed. So I hustled back to the start line with wrapping my ankle and arrived just before the start. That meant not getting my Garmin up and running for the first couple of minutes of the race. Such is life.

Even though it was still hot and muggy, the falling rain kept me realtively cool. I have noted before that I have fairly well in rainy conditions so I was hopeful. There were some pretty large puddles in the road so I tried my best to avoid them and keep the insides of my shoes dry. I also made a point of avoiding running on or near the stripes on the road as they become very slippery when wet, as recently seen during the Tour de France.

I took my first walk break about 12 minutes into the race at the first water stop. My heart rate was 150 but I still felt pretty good. I did lose too much time here though as I walked for over 90 seconds as I gulped down some water. My heart rate dropped down to 135 during this time. But then I got going again and I was slowly passing other runners as we approached the turn around point. My heart rate reached 152 during this stretch. But I still felt good. I was running at about 11 minute pace, excluding the walk break. But then it was time for another water stop and another walk. This was another 90 second walk and again my heart rate sank to the mid 130's.

Now it was time for a long mild uphill stretch. I tend to not notice low grades when they are downhill but I sure do notice them when I have to run up them. Other than the walk breaks, this is where I probably lost some time. At this point, the sky was full of lighning. I have been recently reading about the increase in number of people being hit by lighning and that kept me moving. I didnt want to be a statistic. I made a final push during the final 1/4 mile, getting my heart rate up to 156. I crossed the line with a time of 37:17. That's 47 seconds slower than my by 5K of the year and 2 seconds slower than my time in this race last year but I could live with it given the wet conditions. Most importantly, I felt really good when I finished. That was really important after feeling so poorly after my race just a few days before.

As I cooled down the race director came over the loud speaker and said a large thunderstorm was about 10 minutes away and suggested we head for our cars. That meant the movie showing of "Twilight" was cancelled. Bummer. I was kinda looking forward to sipping a beer and watching some of the movie (Dori was in Pittsburgh). But with the movie cancelled and the extremely long lines for beer, I decided I would just head home to my frightened dog Riley and comfort him during the storm. I goy thome just as the main storm hit and held my shiverring dog in my lap for almost half an hour while the storm passed.

Race stats.
Avg heart rate 145bpm
Max heart rate 156 bpm
calories burned 332
max speed 10.5mph (about the 3 mile mark)

This race marked my 37th race of the year and 414th in my career.