The Arizona Road Racers are a pretty large running group in this area. I am not a member because most of their events are held in East Phoenix and Scottsdale, but I have run in a few races they have sponsored on the west side of town. They are usually well attended and well organized. I decided to register for this race about 2 weeks ago even though my running has been pretty sporadic over the last 2-3 months. I was back up to 12 miles a week after my injury. However, after a pretty good 6 mile run on June 5th, things weren't feeling quite right with my achilles tendon, so I took three more weeks off and just rode my bike while continuing my rehab on my own. After about two weeks of that, things felt like they were improving, so I went ahead and signed up, figuring that I would be okay to run a respectable time after two more weeks of biking and maybe one test run.

I had no idea what the course would be like. It was at a local park. If it was as flat as my neighborhood, I could probably hold pretty close to an 8:00 pace; perhaps even go lower depending on my conditioning. However, if the course had the standard hills associated with going underneath overpasses and such, that would probably be good for at least an extra 2-3 seconds per mile on the pace. But the big factor of course was the temperature. All of these races that this group sponsors in the summer are 5Ks (for obvious reasons). This one was 4 miles to commemorate the July 4th Holiday.

The race started at 6:30 AM. At that time the temperature was 85 degrees with 60% humidity and zero wind. At that temperature, I knew a sub 8 pace was pretty much out of the question. In my current condition, I figured anything better than 33:00 (8:15 pace) would be just fine. The course was a four mile loop that bordered one of those desert washes / gullies that are so common out here. We ran on a bike path. Because of the number of runners, they actually did a pseudo-wave start, letting the sub 6 minute folks take off first. After about 20 seconds, they sent the 7 & 8 minute per mile runners, and so on. That actually worked out very well. Anyway, I punched my Garmin crossing the timing mat and was on my way. I have never run a race in temperatures this high before, so I was mindful of the pace, especially since I am not nearly in as good condition as before I got hurt. Most of the first mile was level to slightly downhill. At the marker, my Garmin read 8:01. Not bad, but it was clear that I would need to ease off because there were some hills coming. We ran in a westerly direction for the first half of the race. Of course this meant we'd be running into the sun on the way back, which I wasn't too crazy about. The mile 2 split was 8:09. Sure enough, when I turned back to the east, I could just feel the sun tracking my every step. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, nor were there any trees on the route. So I just kept dousing my head with water from the hydration stops while drinking from my fuel belt. The mile 3 split was 8:13. There was one hill in there that was a factor. I picked up the pace slightly over the last mile, but didn't have the confidence to go with an all out sprint at the end. I was still a little leary of how my tendon would respond (or not respond). Anyway, the last split was 8:08. Unofficial time was 32:35 (8:08 pace). That lines up with my mid-tempo training pace, which isn't too bad in this heat. The best part was my foot held up fine. No discomfort at all. I think I can begin building my miles back up to where I need to be to start my training in August. This has been a frustrating year for me up to this point. My hope is that this solid run in these conditions mean that the worst is behind me and I can work my way back into fighting shape in time to run a good marathon in Las Vegas on Dec. 6th. I hope everyone else had fun in their races today. Talk to you soon.

Karl