Hello Humidity!

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer, and the weather fell in line! The Ringing In Hope: A Salute to Our Troops 5K race was humid and sticky, and I threw myself right into it. Yes, the name of the race is really long!

I had run the Lawyers Have Heart 5K just 9 days prior, but the two races were like apples and oranges in terms of course profile and weather. I also brought a different mindset with me to Ringing In Hope: to survive! I wasn't trying to set any kind of course PR, I just wanted to run really hard and see what I could do.

As I mentioned in my last race report, I identified the cause of my sluggishness as the side effects from a new iron supplement. According to my Fitbit, my daily readiness for that day was 15 out of 100, with an elevated resting heart rate and a low HRV. I wasn't getting the sleep I needed and I was feeling like crap because of an overabundance of B vitamins.

I switched to an iron supplement that's iron only, and I started to feel better almost immediately. My Fitbit readiness score for this Memorial day race was 93 out of 100. Huge difference.

Before the Race
Greg and I arrived at the race about 50 minutes before it started. I picked up my bib, pinned it on, and went to the bathroom. It was raining very lightly, which I knew would be welcome once I started racing, but at 64 degrees, it made things a little chilly while I was just standing around. 

I started my warm up on the course. I looked around for my friend Stephanie, who would be running the 10K, but I didn't see her anywhere. Towards the end of my warmup, I spotted my friend Nilani and we shared about five minutes of running together. During this time, I had a caffeinated Maurten gel.

The warm up allowed me to scope out the course. This race has been going on for over 15 years, but the location has changed multiple times. I had run this "Ringing In Hope" race before, but never on this course. I had run this course as a 10K before (just last winter), but the 5K course is totally different. I think only the first mile is the same and then the courses come back together right before the finish line. To clear up any confusion, Ringing In Hope has a December race (5K and 10K) and a Memorial Day race (5K and 10K). 

I won this race on a different course back in 2018. First overall female!

On my personal weather scale, this race gets a 3 out of 10. 64 degrees with dew point of 64. Very muggy. It lightly rained during the warm up and started raining heavily about 20 minutes after we finished. But unfortunately it did not rain while we were running, which I think would have helped cool me off. I was very grateful I hadn't decided to run the 10K!

I decided to wear the Mizuno Hyperwarp Elite. I absolutely LOVE these shoes, but my Achilles tendons don't like them. They have a 3.5mm drop which puts a strain on my Achilles the next day. They always feel great when I wear them, but then I pay for it the following day. I've struggled with insertional Achilles tendinopathy for over 8 years. I love the fit, and the ride. Unlike most carbon fiber racers, they aren't "mushy" and you actually get some ground feel. At the same time, they are also propulsive. 

Mile 1

Mile 1: 6:31
This race has a fast start, and when I ran the 10K last winter, I think my first mile was around 6:30. I didn't look at my watch because I didn't want to feel intimidated by a fast pace. I don't remember too much else about this mile, given that the race was held a week ago and I was already in the pain cave during mile 1!

Mile 2: 7:00
What goes down must come up. Yikes, this is slower than my half marathon pace! But a humid, uphill mile in a 5K can do that to you. My average heart rate for this mile was 174, which according to my recent VO2 max test is Zone 5. Anaerobic. And that was the average for the whole mile! That was my max HR at the end of the previous 5K. I was working hard, that's for sure. 

Mile 3: 6:56
And I never quite recovered from it! Mile 3 had some inclines and declines, but the limiting factor here was that my legs and my body were cooked from mile 2. My heart rate averaged 173 and I was holding on for dear life. 

Final Kick: 5:42 pace
As I approached the finish line, I saw the clock ticking towards 21:00. I really wanted to be under 21:00 and I fought hard for it.

My official time was 20:59

After The Race
After finishing, I met up with Greg and we went back out to the course to watch the 10K finishers come in. The 10K started 10 minutes before the 5K, so there were a mix of 5K and 10K finishers coming in all together. We saw my friend Hannah coming in and then Stephanie. Greg took really amazing photos of both of them!

Final Kick

Then I cooled down for about two miles with Stephanie. Whenever I run a race with Stephanie, she is always so dedicated about doing a cool down. I tend to slack, and if left to my own devices, I only end up running one mile, and sometimes even less. But it goes by much faster with a friend!

The rain started coming down harder and I got a latte from one of the vendors at the finish line festival. While I was waiting for my latte they started the awards, so I missed hearing them call my name. But they waved me over when they saw me approach. I won first place in my age group (40-49) which meant a gift certificate to our local running store. Stephanie also won first place in our age group for the 10K.

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
I'm really happy with how this race went. Even though my 10K pace on this course last winter was 6:38, I know that the humidity was the limiting factor and I did the best I could. When the weather is a 3 out of 10 on my personal scale vs. a 10 out of 10, you get a faster 10K pace than 5K pace.

I sometimes wonder "could I have run that faster" and the answer is usually yes, because in hindsight you can usually think of areas where you could have executed differently. But in this case, my heart rate data tells the story. I can't even believe I was able to sustain that kind of Zone 5 heart rate for so long.

This race has confirmed my love of the Mizuno Hyperwarp Elite as my favorite carbon fiber racing shoe. I will wear it for the July 4th 5K and pay the price on July 5th! Thankfully, my Achilles only suffered for one day post race and then they started to feel normal again. It really helps to add a heel insert into my daily trainers. Unfortunately, the Mizuno shoes won't accommodate any kind of insert, even when cut down to fit the shoe. My average cadence was 200 steps per minute, which shows that these shoes are a good match for my high cadence style. In the ASICS Metaspeed Edge, my cadence was 197.

It was also nice to feel positive again! As I mentioned in my previous post, I had some negative feelings towards my performance and this time there was not a negative thought to be had. I also felt some redemption from the Lawyers Have Heart 5K. This race had twice the elevation and the weather was worse: same temperature but with a much higher dew point.

I'll continue to orient my training around the 5K distance for the next five weeks, and then it's time to jump back into marathon training.