Beat the Heat 5K

I wasn't as prepared for this race as I normally am, considering I was coming off a 7 days trip and had only been back to my "normal" routine for 2 days. Add to that it was an evening race (starting at 7pm) and that it's generally pretty darn hot (hence the name of the race)

Woke up Saturday morning with my lower back hurting much more than it usually does that time of day. I didn't have anything planned for the day other than sitting around and watching movies. Guess it worked to my advantage. Then around 10am the rain hit, very heavy downpour. On and off through the day. I don't mind running in the rain but when it's difficult to see, I prefer to stay indoors.

6pm rolled around and it's still raining here in Greensboro. But I get dressed, jump in the car and head out for Winston-Salem. Actually I was running a bit late (all day thinking the race started at 7:30 when it was really starting at 7:00) Had to park in a lot a bit further away so did a nice jog from the car to registration desk. Plus side, it had stopped raining. Downside, it was 3 minutes to race time and I had to pee something fierce!

Other pros and cons of the day : Happy about the rain cooling things off, not happy that there were so many hills in this race. I honestly don't know if I will be able to run it next year. The hills were hard enough - add heat to that and I probably would have passed out. Not happy about the fact my mp3 player wasn't charged, so no music this go around. Happy there were 2 water stops this race so I wouldn't have to worry about carrying my water bottle. Happy I made mile 1 in 10:37 and mile 2 in 24:00. Not happy that I didn't improve with my overall time (37:40) And the most important happy moment was coming in to the finish line and the first person I see was my friend Bruce Sprinkle, who was volunteering for the event (and who had told me about it last year and said I should check out the race)