My best and worst, at the same race

I may not have done anything super exciting during my vacation, but I wasn't a complete bum.

I took a couple of bike rides, went swimming with The Rugrats and met a friend for dinner.

Oh, and I ran my absolute worst 5K ever. And to think, last year at this time, I set a new personal best when I ran the Sunset 5K, a race run in conjunction with Paperfest in Kimberly.

Maybe my awful time had a bit to do with the weather. Since it's a race run in the evening, it was hot. The mercury was hovering in the mid-80s and the dew point? Yeah. Dew points in the 70s aren't so comfortable to sit in much less run 3 miles. So it was hot. And humid. And I was sweating buckets before I even lined up at the starting line.

And let's not even talk about the lack of water. One water station. And normally that would be OK, especially since we passed it twice since it was a two-lap course. But then the race organizers should at least make sure there's plenty of fluids at the finish line. Because they were lacking a bit on the water at the end.

And even though I took a few bike rides earlier in the week and my legs felt OK, while I was running Friday they just felt like a bunch of dead weight. At times, it was difficult to put one foot in front of the other. Maybe I wasn't as recovered from the triathlon Sunday as I thought I was. Mental note to self, the next time you do a tri, make sure not to schedule a 5K for a few days later.

But I ran it. And as much as I wanted to quit, I kept "running." At a very, very, very slow pace. I only stopped to walk once, right near the end when I was faced with the nasty hill to the finish line. But once the finish was in sight, I ran it in.

And I still cringed when I saw the time on the clock.

40 minutes, 30 seconds.

Ouch.

I blame it on the heat. And the humidity. And that I was still recovering from my triathlon Sunday. And besides, my 5K times can only get better from here on out this year.