As I was preparing to leave the house for the Deary Memorial Road Race in Putnam the temp was 77F with 83% humidity. I knew it was going to be a hot, slow race and I was ok with just running not racing the 5 miles. After all, the proceeds of the race went to Day Kimball Hospital and their community work for cancer treatment and screening.
When we arrived at the race my fans found a nice shady spot under a tree and I went and found the registration tent. After registering, I slathered on the Body Glide, it was going to be one of those runs, put on sunscreen, adjusted my visor and headed over to the start line! Once I got to the start line I looked for familiar faces. I realized at this point that the crowd was not as big as it has been in the last 3 yrs that I've raced it. For one, Dianna was missing with a nasty chest cold, Mr. Stapelfeld was running the Brew Run in Brewster, MA and Terry was on vacation in RI. Secondly, I think the nasty heat kept some runners away. I was able to find April- Anne who informed me of her pace goal. I wished her well and told her I would see her in the end. The course is a bit hilly and very sunny. It was tough going but there was water stops at each mile marker and a few spectators with their hoses out which felt very refreshing to be sprayed. After the second mile I decided to walk through the water stops. I was feeling a bit queasy and didn't want to end up in the ER with an IV at the end so it just made sense to take it slow and smart. My watch is having some technical difficulties and they didn't have timers at the splits so I have no idea how my pacing was but I finished with an overall pace of 9:17.
It was a long 5 miles but I finished in 46.24. I placed 9th in my division and 162 overall. Not bad for a slow pace. Goes to show you how the overall race went.