Running On Island Time 5k recap

Saturday I ran the Running on Island Time 5k! It is the first race in the Space Coast Runners series. One of these years I'm going to sign up for the entire series. I missed the deadline again. Oops!

The race started at 7:30am. I arrived about an hour before the race. During that hour I swear it got 10 degrees hotter. Running in August, in Florida is always brutal. My only goal for this race was to finish. I had no hopes of finishing in the top three in my age group.

At 7:30a we were off! During my training runs I've slowed down due to the heat. I've been keeping a 10:00-11:00 min pace. And I know when I start a race I always go out too fast, it happens:) But when I got to the 1 mile mark and my time was 9:23 HOLY CRAP! I thought well I'll just keep going until I can't run anymore. Still no hopes of an age group finish, but let's see what I can do!

Luckily some of the course was shaded. The race started at a school and ran through a neighborhood. Apparently the neighbors didn't get the memo, because we had to dodge a few cars. When I got to mile 2 I had slowed down a little. It was a 9:38 mile. Still not bad, it was hot and I've been slower lately.

Just as I got to 2.60 I was done. I had nothing left. I thought well, I'll slow down and see what happens. Luckily that only lasted about a tenth of a mile. Once I got out on the main street, I knew the finish line wasn't too far away. Before I made the last the turn I saw some runners with medals. I was like we get medals?!?! Holy crap it's my lucky day! I was so excited I sprinted. I sprinted like I was on fire, it was hot enough I could have been! If you look on my Strava I went from a 9:03 pace to a 5:34 pace. I just about lost my breakfast.

I finished with a time of 29:31! That's really good for me in August! I finished 12th in my age group.

Next race is the Bird-In-Hand half marathon! Hopefully all my hot weather training and training runs up North help me get up those hills!!