Not the perfect 5K

We've been bemoaning the fact that June has been fairly cold even by Chicagoland standards and have been wishing for summer. Mother Nature got her summer engines revving earlier this week with all manner of rain, weird thunderstorms, and the threat of tornados (it made flying into ORD nigh unto impossible - just ask my buddy Mark who spent a whole day trying to flee San Francisco yesterday. He'll tell you it didn't go well.) After the fusilade of storms Mother Nature dumped summer on us this morning. Frankly, the old broad could have waited until tomorrow to do so since I ran my first official 5K of the season this morning.

I ran the Fox River 5K again out in Batavia. It was my first 5K ever last year. I was pretty excited to be back. It's a nice run along the Fox River. Say what you will about the political mess that is Illinois, but the urban planners have done a killer job planning trails/parks in the 'burbs. Here's a pre-race shot:
At this stage, the black shirt seemed like a good idea

It looked like a good field of runners and walkers, like last year. It was an 0800 start so it seemed like it would still be fairly cool, temperature-wise. Based on the amount of skin seen at the starting line, please note it was not cool.

It was in the low to mid-80's at this point and the humidity was heavy. Not a lot of breeze going to bust through the humidity either. No matter because when the starter pistol fired, we were off.
I'm somewhere in the herd

I like this race. No drama and it's a scenic run. I started out strong for me but started to feel the heat quicker than I anticipated so I dialed it back. So did a several other runners. My lone complaint about this race is that the course is on a public trail that is popular with bicyclists. Ideally the course could be blocked off for the morning of the race. Or better yet, the beligerent elderly people that were on their retirement home bike ride this morning could have taken doubled up on the prune juice. Or something to get them to ease up. When faced with a wall of runners coming their way, did they yield? No. They simply plowed on through and acted appalled as runners yelled at them. Really, people, are you that clueless? Or did you have the hearing aids turned off? I'm all for you maintaining good bone health, but somebody needed to break a hip this morning and get off the trail. I'm just saying.

The second half of the loop runs you right along the Fox River and it's beautiful so that made it a little easier to slog through the heat (note to self - the black shirt is not effective for keeping cool). As I rounded the corner for the last few hundred yards to the finish line, the theme to "Rocky" came on the iPod and darn it all, if I didn't pick up the pace. What is it about that song?! The stunningly patient SML, and all around great race crew queen, got this picture as I was coming in to the finish:

I wasn't happy with my time, to be honest. It was a couple of minutes longer than the training run I had done in DC on Thursday and I'd run several 5K's faster last year. I'd like to throw the blame at the feet of Mother Nature and her gift o'heat, but I realize that I should have trained a little bit better. Well, I have another opportunity next Saturday as there's another 5K to run. Let's see what Mother Nature tosses our way.