I’ve never done a one mile race before in my life. On the one hand, that means that today’s time was a guaranteed PR. On the other hand, it meant that I didn’t really know how to prepare for the distance. On the gripping hand, even with all that, I’m quite happy with my performance.

I got downtown about 45 minutes before the race, and jogged about a mile and a half at a slow, comfortable pace. I walked up to the capital grounds, past the chip pickup tent (I’ve had my own DN-2N704 for a year or so now) and up to the front doors where there was a small horde of runners stretching, sitting, and chatting before their heats.

I met up with several people I know, including Alex, Jason and Leslie. Alex was going out in the heat after mine, Leslie the one before, and Jason wasn’t running it this year as he has a major Tri coming up next weekend. That is one of the benefits of doing a lot of running and racing, you find people to talk to while hanging out who understand things like, “Oh, I’m going to do some wind sprints now, back in a few,” in the middle of an otherwise unremarkable conversation.

The weather was crap. by the way. 93 degrees with close to 70% humidity. Not exactly prime conditions for any kind of race. I was sweating just standing around on the grass, especially if I got out from under the shade. We also didn’t have any water at the start line, but that wasn’t a big deal because I had made sure to be properly hydrated before getting out there, starting the day before.

So. The 7:00-7:15 heat heads out, and we go to line up at the starting line. Some good natured milling around, chatting with lots of other people who wouldn’t be doing this race if it wasn’t part of the Distance Challenge, and finding out that many of us had never run a race this short before either. We’re told that we’re going to get a countdown from 5, then an airhorn. 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - and we’re off!

I did not have a great sense of pace for this race. It’s never really been an issue on a road race to think in any term less than a mile, so I just followed the pack. I had started out near the front (not that many people), but ended up behind a couple of slower people and was rapidly approaching the back of the pack. My breathing felt off from the start, losing my 4/4 after only 30 seconds or so and ending up at 3/2 before the first quarter mile had gone by.

When we came up to the half mile marker, I realized why - I passed by it at 2:58. We were actually running a sub-6:00 pace! Remember, 6:00 was about the fastest I’d ever ran even a 400m lap, so this was a big deal for me. Still, the forerunners were pullling away and I could feel the pack behind me dwindling. My breathing was down at 2/2 - maybe worse - and the heat of the day was just pounding me. I certainly couldn’t keep smiling.

Then it happened. Coming up on the three-quarter mile mark, I actually thought about stopping and walking. Here I was, less than a mile into a race, and I wanted to give it up! I couldn’t believe it, and my training helped me convince myself to just keep going, but my brain was no longer on my side. I was feeling dizzy - just a little - and my throat was beginning to rasp.

We came up to the top of the bridge. I didn’t feel the last uphill, but then again I hadn’t noticed any downhill after the first 200m or so either so I guess it all worked out. Gilbert was yelling to me from the sidelines, then Leslie, then I’m just running for the clock. Amazingly, it hasn’t yet hit 6:30! Coming closer, this bridge has never felt this long, I’m watching it tick up and I just try to keep going. Evil calls out my name, everybody’s clapping, and I finally drag myself across the line, remembering to run across both mats before stopping and grabbing onto the chute rail. Luckily there was both powerade (to drink) and water (to pour over my head) waiting at the end.

That was - bar none - the hardest race I’ve ever done. My legs were decent (they’re tired, but they didn’t give out). My mental conditioning worked out, since I didn’t actually stop. My pacing was pretty poor - it seems that everyone but me sandbagged their times and I should have been in the heat before, where I’d probably have done better. It was my cardio conditioning that did me in. Between not doing any real long runs until recently, and having no speedwork to speak of until last Thursday, I just didn’t train for this.

Having said all that, my final time was a 6:38, which was good for 439/968, or 60/90 in my age group. That’s actually at the lower range of my estimated times, and slightly faster than I was doing my treadmill 400m intervals last week. Even though it didn’t feel like a good race near the end, I’m very happy with the way it turned out and with my final time.

I finished up with some more stretching, walked, chatted, ate a banana and some cookies, and looked up my official time. I got to see three more heats come across, and the fastest runners didn’t make it over the line until about 4:18, meaning that the heat was definately a factor in everybody’s times today. Never have I seen so many fast, fast people come up to a finish line looking so wartorn - the marathon has nothing on this race for that. Its very strange watching someone “shuffle” poorly across the line at a 5:00 pace, too.

Of course, after the final heat the temperature dropped about 10-15 degrees and the clouds rolled in. Where was that when we were running? I ran another mile and a half (or so) for cooldown, and got back to my car just before the skies opened up for some very heavy rain.

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