Summers are not made for racing -- at least not for me. I'm a big chickenshit when it comes to running fast in the heat, due in part to my own experience and in part to all the scare stories that I've read about young and fit runners who unexpectedly collapsed during runs and either died or damaged themselves to the point that they could no longer run competitively. Running in the heat sucks. It hurts like crap, saps your energy, and turns your urine the color of a school bus. It is an unnatural and uncivil act which as a southerner sometimes leaves me feeling stupid for being out deliberately, sytematically sweating in this fetid muck we call air down here in August, when any sensible person will tell you that in this kind of weather the only acceptable outdoor activity is sitting on the porch and drinking sweet tea.
But it's OK -- as long as you've prepared for it properly, through training and hydration. That's one thing I've been working on this summer while I'm building a base. Much of my easy running has been done in the afternoon heat and humidity, as I find it very difficult to get up early enough to run in cooler weather during the week. I come home from work, change into my running gear, and log 5-6 miles most evenings in the South Carolina air, which sometimes has a consistency similar to that of chicken soup. I do this by necessity; yet I have discovered an unexpected benefit to this practice: the building of mental and physical toughness, which is an area in which I feel I have been lacking in recent years as I learn more and more about running, and thus think too much at times in races instead of simply running hard and giving my all. I also have built more endurance than I expected to build.
I found this out last night during a 2-mile race in an all-comers' track meets held across the street from me at Furman University. The track club holds them on Wednesdays during the summer, and I have meant to attend some of them this year, but have been scared off by the 90-plus temperatures. But the 2-mile at the last meet is one of the club's points series races, and last year I earned myself 50 points for being first in my age group even though I ran a gingerly 15:07. This year it was different, in ways both positive and negative.
The meet itself was fun. I got to see a 6-year-old girl run 400 meters in 1:10, only 11 seconds slower than my high-school PR. I got to see a lot of fast runners, both kids and adults, in some of the other events, including the fast heat of the 2-mile. I waited for the slower heat, just like last year, and had no idea what to expect from my legs and lungs, which had been exposed to no speedwork in nearly three months. My plan was to try to lock into a pace that I could hold, perhaps a 7:15 or 7:20. But even that modest goal was no sure thing.
The weather and the turnout helped. There were so many runners -- especially kids -- that many of the events had multiple heats; thus the first 2-mile heat did not begin until after 8:00. By then, the sun had gone behind the clouds and a slight breeze stirred to cool the mild air, already under 80 degrees, a little more. By the time my heat started, I had ditched my shades and was ready to test my physical limits. I'm not quite sure that I did so fully, but I did run at a pace that was quite hard compared to my recent efforts: slightly under 7 minutes for most of the race. Unfortunately, there were so many people in the heat that I had a hard time remaining in the inside lane, and thus added an additional 100 meters or so (according to my GPS) to my race distance. Yet I was pleasantly surprised by my performance, which included the wholly unexpected addition of a kick at the end. Yes, as I entered the bell lap, I found that despite the fact that I had begun hurting in earnest with around 1000 meters to go, I had something left, and began to open it up a bit. I turned it on a bit more in the backstretch, and as I came into the homestretch, I found an extra gear that I had not had possesed for some time. It was nice, and even though my time was a still-modest 14:28, I proved to myself that my base training is going reasonably well, and that the tempo runs that I have began mixing in with the easy miles have paid off in a modest way, and need to be continued. Plus, I had fun running a different race on a track upon which I have done many productive workouts, and upon which I saw Alan Webb break a four-minute mile earlier this year.
