An evening in hell

I ran the Yankee Homecoming 10-miler last night. It started at 6:35 PM, but it was still hot and muggy. It was the kind of weather that, even wearing shorts, you sweat while just standing around.

The first couple of miles--from the High School to the waterfront were a mixed bag: I kept the pace under 7:00 per mile but my temperature was climbing at an unsustainable rate. I hit the wall at 3 miles--still right about at 7:00 pace at that point. My legs felt weak, I was out of breath and felt like my brains were boiling. I must have slowed down to 8:00 or higher because I had close to three minutes ahead of an eight minute pace but only ended-up two minutes ahead of that pace by the end. Also, from the three mile point I was pretty constantly getting passed and hardly passing anyone. Between slowing down and the evening cooling, I was not really overheated by mile 6. I probably could have stepped-up the pace to closer to seven minutes per mile and maintained that till the end. Between the heat and fatigue of the first 10K, I just didn't have the will-power to do this.

In the future, when it is hot like this I will pin my number to my shorts and run shirtless. It will be cooler that way and also will save weight. A t-shirt doesn't weigh much dry but when saturated with water it is heavy and uncomfortable.

310 1240 dbp 46 251/762 M 35/123 M4549 CHELMSFORD MA 1:18:08 7:49

Update 2: I never saw cheer-boy among the finishers on the results page.

Photos via Jim Rhoades for cool running

Update: It wasn't all bad. Late in the race I passed a spectator who was smoking a large cigar. I love cigars and would smoke them all the time except that I feel like crap afterwords. I do like the smell of tobacco smoke on a sultry evening but amongst the running set it was probably viewed by most runners as kind of assholian.

After the run we picked-up some beers and went to a fellow runner's house, which was right near to part of the course. Grilled burgers, beer and badinage were the order of the evening.