[at-l] Indy Mini -- one last HHH Report...

[ThatSloetoe <sloetoe@yahoo.com>]

Greetings Dead Runners!

I know even from the latest digest land that I am not the last one to post a
race report of the past weekend. I was amazed that the HHH was so consistent
from coast to coast (a little North American xenophobia leaks in...)
With that:

SHORT VERSION: IndyLife 500 Festival Mini-Marathon finish
Expected 01:26:30, top 400 overall finish, top 10% age group finish.
Got........ with starting temp of 73*, ending of 77*, 80% Humidity...

 Gun time 01:32:50; 299/23,500?
Chip Time 01:32:44; 310/23,500? 56/1467 for M34-39.

        5mile      10mile      5k         overall
time    33:49     01:10:51   21:54        01:32:44
split                37:02
pace     6:46         7:24    7:04            7:05

And now even the pictures are up, at www.chipphotos.com/race2 enter "792"


SLIGHTLY LONGER, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LYRICAL VERSION:
Well, *I* was ready for the dang thing, but the weather was not going to
cooperate. I foresaw HHH and tried like hell to aclimate beforehand...with
maybe 8 days to work at it, perhaps I only made a dent, perhaps only
psychological.... but I have tended to tolerate heat better than most, so...

Start of Race: I knew to go out easy, and I fairly jogged the first mile. In
6:25. Oops. But I'd PRed 5 miles at 6:15 7 days before.... so I decided to
stick with it -- it felt too comfortable an effort. I would just keep the
effort constant and watch the splits grow. (Gawd! I love Without Limits --
every time I watch it I find something else to love about it.... and yes, I
watched it the night before the Mini. Primed!!) They doubled the water along
the course, I think, and there was water at LEAST every mile...and Gatorade
(though full strength[!]) at half of the water stops. I knew from the start
-- as did everyone I was running with, hit 'em early and often. (And this on
top of ConQuest! overnight, and Succeed! in the morning. Thank God!)

Mile two: 6:25. Very easy, pretty cool internal temp. Mile three: 6:30 and
all's well. Except for that bladder bounce. And growing side stitch. Just
before mile four, I follow another guy around a building on a site seeing
tour -- we were both there for the same thing. Took a while...and I leaned
over to grab my right toes to take care of the side stitch. Still quite
comfortable, though loosing lots of time. Mile four: 7:25. A bit more of a
side stitch (still sucking down the water -- I'm thinking I'll take the side
stitch now rather than the dehydration later...) Mile five: 7:00, 33:49
elapsed.

Enter the 500 track. OhmiGod. Two and a Half Miles of featureless plain,
covered by race cars at less than 20 seconds a mile... everyone *hates* this
part. So... Through mile 10, I kept slupping the liquids, the side stitches
went away, the times went from 6:45 to 6:55 to 7:20 to... still trying to
keep that initial level of perceived effort constant -- and still feeling
comfortable doing it. I *did* walk water stops to make sure I drank as much
as I could, as well as dumping at least one cup over my head. At mile 10, I
<shudder> took off my DRS singlet -- open CoolMax mesh and all, and threw it
to a friendly bar owner. I felt MUCH cooler then, and with 5k left, put the
(floppy, much fatigued) pedal to the metal.

I wanted a sub20 5k, and SOMEHOW muscled into high gear. Now, high gear on
previous runs would have been 6:15-6:30s, today was 7:04s and I was HAPPYYYY
with that. On previous runs, I'd covered the last mile in around 6:00, this
day I was VERY happy with 7:04. I even managed, in the last quarter mile, to
uncork a genuinely explosive kick ('course, I would have preferred that 3/4
mile back), which if your creative in your screen refresh, you can see in the
chipphotos.com shots. I ran the last 5k in 21:54, and grateful for that.

The guy I'm passing as I cross the finish line is Lt. Timothy Horty of the
Indianapolis Police Department. He looks very hard hit by the heat, but I
have NEVER finished near this guy before. Wow. At the same time, another guy
I was hoping to beat *PRed* at 01:22:00 -- the heat didn't seem to hurt *him*
any. And I usually finish between a bevy of local female talent (just a
phrase, folks, just a phrase... And Sue Parks won the 5K, so she wasn't there
this time...). Well, this year, even with the heat, I *still* managed to come
in between the quicker ladies.... It amazed me to see who was affected by the
heat and how. 

And talk about "dropping like flies"! One guy, with less than a half mile to
go (and we're all booking pretty hard here) just gives up the ghost and does
a ninety degree turn for the curb, right in front of me. He barely made it.
Didn't slow down or anything, just RRrrt! Plop! Four people ended up in
comas, 160 total were transported to the hospital, the race was red-flagged,
and then black-flagged, at some point. I confess, I don't know when -- I went
shooting through the finish shoots, across Military Park, and straight into
the canal. BOY did that feel good. Followed that with a free massage
(Woo-hoo!) and food and beer in the sunshine and salt on everything thanks
and life is good!!!! (Did have a bout with salt cramps at mile 11 that held
off till after the race. Between the goomies and the massage therapist, I
worked them out -- in fine fashion.....[Oh joy!])

Really didn't feel that bad, nor think I pushed that hard, immediately after
the race, but I NEVER RECOVERED!!! With all the post-race refreshment (and I
was there 4 hours...), I *still* arived home 4 pounds under what I left home
at. Saturday nite, I'm dead. Sunday, I'm dead. Monday nite, slept for 10
hours. Ran fine on Tuesday, ran like crap yesterday. Last year, I did three
marathon length runs in the heat between mid-June and mid-July, INCLUDING
Grandfather Mountain. Felt WORSE from this 'un. I've spent the entire week in
a fog, and rushing around doing the chores postponed by the race.... But from
reading all your posts, it seems I'm hardly the only one.

Soooo, there's my HHH report of the Indy Mini. Alejandro, sir, I WILL update
my 2Kn2K entry to reflect the worthy 290.1 miles I've run this RY (Running
Year (c)) for an RYWA (Running Year Weekly Average (c)) of 15.27 miles per
week. And Jimp? And the ever-eloquent JimA? I am definitely a runner, but in
my heart of hearts, it might only be because I can't hike in the deep woods
as much as I'd like. (There now. Hiking related, too.)

ORN: ORN? You kidding? Sat in a conference all day, listening to high-priced
consultants speak sense to those who need to spend a lot to hear a lot.

NP: Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor: Appalachian Journey. Thank you,
David Addleton! Great tip.

This weekend? Struggling with a long run of 18-24. Which do I do to help most
with the Hoosier Marathon in 4 weeks? Iiiiii don't knowwwwwww.......


Run well, y'all.

=====
Sloetoe


   "Once in a while, you get shown the light --
    in the strangest of places, if you look at it right."

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