It was an extremely hot Sunday afternoon of 81 degrees during the warmup and the race.
I arrived in West Roxbury a half hour before the start, registered, grabbed a drink of water, put my number on, and ran 1 mile warmup. Tried to get used to the high temps. After all I DID just spend 3 weeks in FL in hotter temps only two weeks ago.
I was fasted 16 hours fasted at the start. Thought about taking a Gu with caffeine but decided against it. Asked Jan Bober if she took a gell before this 5K and she said no. My decision was validated.
I had heard from several people including Mike Jordan, Maureen Larkin, and a woman named Jennifer with who I had struck up conversation with while waiting for all of the announcements under the hot sun, that this course had a few good hills. I was mentally ready, thanks to that info.
I had not raced since June 2023! I was stoked to be "back in the game" this day to see what I could do. I didn't know if I would do 8s, 7:45s 7"30s. NO IDEA.
I recognized a few runners from local running clubs. It's amazing how these people are still going strong after so many years!
Finally we were off and running. I immediately found myslef maneuvering around several elementary boys. They were all very cute running along but I was needing to get past them. Eventually we all spread out and it was time to settle into a pace. I paced myslef as well as I could knowing the hills would be coming at miles 2 and 3. In hind sight the hills were substantial but not as steep as I had expected.
My ending time was 23:56. I saw that I had to sprint at the end in order to go under 24 minutes. Probably my slowest 5k ever but nonetheless I was very pleased with my effort given the circumstances. I was 5th in my AG 50-59. This was a HUGE race with nearly 1500 runners.
I'm so glad I ran and very motivated to train hard for the Provincetown 5K in July. It will be hot but less hills.
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