Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer 5K

.71M Warm Up, 5K, 19:19, 6:13 pace, Max HR = 181, Avg HR = 164 (86%)
Later that morning: 6.17 miles, 48:50, 7:54 pace, Max HR = 158, Avg HR = 143

I had a fun time at today's Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer 5K. This race was a last minute addition to my calendar thanks to an unused race entry from Dynegy. A quick look at the starting line confirmed my suspicion that I wouldn't be in the running for any significant placing, so I took this at a bit slower than all-out. The idea was that this would replace my missed tempo run on Thursday.

Mile 1 - about 6:07. I'm feeling pretty good here, taking it in stride, and I was shocked to see the mile marker come up so quickly.
Mile 2 - about 6:13. I don't really notice that I'm slowing down, although I'm fatiguing a bit. I heard footsteps at my left since about the half mile mark, and since they're not passing me, I'm assuming they're pacing off of me. It was during this mile that we did a 180 degree turnaround. I passed about three people with a quick turn.
Mile 3 - about 6:15. It's a bit disappointing that I slowed down so much, but I wasn't in the race to go all out so I guess I'm giving myself an out. Everyone else is slowing down and I passed a few people during this stretch. It's 79 degrees with 85% humidity and we're running on the concrete of Memorial Parkway, so fatigue was spread out across the course. The footsteps I heard over the last half of the race are now gone, so I must've dropped them. It turns out they were my buddy and fellow Tornado, Justo (who goes by "Chino").
Finish - I don't have anyone in striking distance in front of me or behind me, so I only mildly cruise it in. As I would have expected, I felt fine at the end (big change from my last two 5K races). This race was over quickly, which is a similar feeling to when I ran the July 4 race this year.

I didn't expect to place, but I was shocked to see myself listed as second in the 30-34 age group preliminary results. I was pushed to third when they re-printed the results and changed to ten year age groups (30-39), but excited to pick up an award. Unfortunately they didn't call my name -- I think they had some scoring kinks with the new disposable chips, and had to manually add a few people who came in ahead of me. Overall I was somewhere in 16-30th place out of more than 400, but I'm not sure because the official results haven't been posted yet. I did win an Astros coffee mug as a door prize. It was on par with the winners' prizes, which is to say this race had some pretty embarrassing "hardware". I felt bad for the age group winners who walked away with a wristband good for free admission to the Aquarium.

Congratulations to Stacey Almond who crushed her PR, and Cody (another Tornado teammate) who finished second overall with about a 16:52. Jackie, a nice girl that I see in the park who started running in March, ran her first 5K and she's ready for more. Leno, the Tornado head coach, has been working on signing her to the Tornados and I hope he's successful.

After I got home I ran my 6 mile neighborhood route since I usually try to get at least ten miles on Saturdays. It was, of course, even hotter, but I took it easy enough that it didn't bother me too much. I ran with sunglasses, which I've only done a couple of times before, but it makes all the difference in the world toward preventing misery. Sometimes I don't know if it's the heat or just the sun that kills me.

Last 7 days = 55.29 miles, 7:15:50, 7:53 pace average
next week goal = 70 miles and then a down week to get ready for the Hood to Coast relay.