Girls on the Run 5k Race Review!

It had been so long since I've run in the true heat and bright sunshine, I think I forgot that it's actually difficult to run when it's hot out!

Which of course is all a bit of clumsy foreshadowing since the weather forecast for Corvallis on Saturday was 85 F, and the race had a late start time of 10:00am.

Well, forward to the start line, which basically consisted of me, Payton, and about 500 girls from the Willamette Valley Girls on the Run. And the temp, as advertised, was easily 75 F at start time and edging quickly up.

Needless to say, when you're racing with hundreds of young girls, the start was interesting. Payton and I lined up on the very edge of the crowd, but soon we were completely surrounded by the crowd. We got off the start fairly well, but were using a lot of energy weaving through the crowd and passing people. That, plus the heat, had Payton starting to fade before the one mile mark, which is much earlier than he's been doing in races over the last couple months.

So I was on my own pretty quickly in this one, and frankly there wasn't a lot of action around me. There were definitely a few people in front of me, but this isn't a race that draws a lot of speed, so I didn't have much to chase or much chasing me for a good chunk of the race.

And frankly, the heat was getting to me as well, as you can see by my splits. It was hot out there. I believe I'll be carrying my water with me tomorrow at the Run for the Hills 8k.

The course zigged and zagged through the OSU campus and was thankfully quite flat. After slogging through the last mile, Payton's old fifth-grade teacher, Mr. Williams, zipped by me about a tenth away from the finish. Then he quickly turned the wrong way at Reser Stadium! I yelled at him to turn it around, but sure didn't slow down to try to stop him. He must have figured it out soon enough, because about 20 yards from the finish line, he went around me again! (check the second photo up above - you can see both Carson, my daughter, cheering for me, and Mr. Williams, with the stroller, coming after me for the second time!)

Ooof. Just glad to be done with that one. I don't think I'll be going out too fast tomorrow if the heat sticks around...there will be hills tomorrow.