Saturday’s Women’s Distance Festival 5k 2-Miler was not the most exciting race I’ve ever run, but it was a challenge. Due to a weekend heat advisory the 5k was wisely shortened to a 2 mile race. Trust me, at 6pm, with the temperature still in the mid-90°s, none of the runners were complaining about the decision!
As is traditional with the annual Women’s Distance Festival race, the ladies got to run their own race at 6pm. The field was a small one, and not much separated the top three runners at the finish. On a personal note, my wife Ally made her racing comeback, and with a couple of weeks of running and mountain biking under her belt, put up a very solid performance! Great to see and hopefully the start of a successful summer of training.
The guys lined up at 6:45pm. Luckily the temperature had dropped slightly and there was even a slight breeze. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all? However, after a quarter of a mile, I realized it was going to be a struggle to maintain any kind of speed and was content to watch the race unfold ahead of me (not that I could have gone any faster if I wanted to of course).
I reached the mile turnaround point in 5:37 and managed to grab two cups of water at the aid station – one to drink and one to pour over my head. I surged a little, passed two of the younger guys and managed to move into 5th position. The surge was a little early though and my legs soon started feeling heavy and my breathing labored.
With about half a mile to go, I caught and passed the 4th place guy, but he soon caught be back and finished 8 seconds ahead of me. My second (and final mile) was a slower 5 minutes 55 seconds to give me an average pace of 5:46 per mile. Not bad, but not great for a 2-Miler, and it’s definitely apparent I need to work on my speed over the summer!
Actually, looking back through my race history, I think this is only the second 2 mile race I’ve ever run, and it happens to be a PR. So maybe I didn’t do too bad after all??
For the record I finished 5th overall in an official time of 11:35, age group place was 1st.
(Note: possibly due to the heat and the fact this was an evening race, there were only just over 40 finishers)
Nice race Steve in the heat and getting a 2 mile PR…Awesome! Congratulations on your first in AG.
Congratulations also to your lovely wife Ally on here fine race and AG placing!
Well Done!
Charlie
Good race, yet another PR? I’m so jealous!
Well, thanks. Difficult not to PR when it was only my second race ever at this distance…..
Thanks Charlie
It felt good to get back out there, and see everyone and race again……….training is going well and my big hope is to run Richmond if I can stay healthy…hope you are doing better.Keep your chin up!!.and well done to Steve………good race in that heat
Ally