Hot 5k

So yesterday was the Oracle 5k. About 500 runners on a flat out/back course. It was ridiculously hot, probably 90-95 degrees, practically no wind and no shade.

I hoped to run about 19-19:30 (6:07 - 6:17 pace, or 3:48-3:54 per KM) but wasn't sure what the weather was gonna do to me.

Started too fast, as usual. first quarter mile was at 5:41 pace. tried to get under control but still the first KM went by at 3:44.

2nd KM was slower and back on track at 3:52, but it was getting ugly out there.

As we turned around at 2.5K it was even hotter coming back. there was a slight cooling breeze on the way out and it disappeared and the turn. 3rd KM slower again at 3:57. definitely dragging now.

By now I'm hurting and in 6th place. the guy ahead is probably 20 seconds ahead and the guy behind is probably 15 seconds. no-one seemed to be much in the mood for heroics so i just decided to try to keep going at the same pace.

4th KM was 3:57 and 5th KM was 3:58 - bringing my time at 5K to 19:28.
normally at the 5K point 5K races stop, but this one went on for another 140 metres (or in this case, 31 seconds).

I had to throw in a painful sprint the last 100m as I saw that I could just squeeze under 20 minutes, that almost killed me and was the worse finish of any race i';ve ever run. but I made it and my race time was 19:59. (official time was 19:58.7). I would have been pissed with a 20:00.1 time after that last effort.

I came 6th overall , 2nd in my 40+ age group which was OK. Slower than I'd hoped but that sort of heat is just stupid for racing a 5k. the 5K time (by garmin) was 19:28 which is 1 second faster than my previous best 5K so it's a kinda/sorta (well, not really but we can pretend) PR. Garmin pace was 6:14

I felt really horrible for the last 2K, and desperatly wanted it to stop. Way too hot and way too fast for me. I hit a new max Heartrate of 191, previously I had thought that 187 was my max HR, guess I'd never really pushed myself before.

Here's a picture of me finishing - I felt even worse than I looked.....