This morning I got up very early to get ready for my fifth Five Points of Life Half-Marathon race here in Gainesville...and my fourth one out of the past five years. Last year's run for me was a comedy of errors...I had misjudged the starting time and had to sprint a half mile just to get to the starting line in time...and I was hampered by problems with gagging. Not this time around, on both accounts. I prepared myself well and was ready to go at 7:00 when the race began. However, the temperature during the race was 64-67 degrees, not necessarily a problem until you realize that the humidity was an oppressive 90-96 %...not a good combination at all. I felt as if a blanket were on me the whole race, dragging me down and interfering with my performance. Still, I got through it all and managed to substantially improve on last year's finishing time: my unofficial time was 2 hours 19 minutes 37 seconds, far slower than my best. But considering the conditions...the worst weather I ever ran a half-marathon in...I was very satisfied with the result. Still I didn't at all enjoy the race while it was going on...it was a struggle for me not to just give up and walk away. I would have much rather shivered uncomfortably before the race with colder weather than deal with this unseasonably warm and extremely muggy morning...
So now that I'm done with that, I can relax for a few days and recover from the experience. By the way, the above photo I took near the start of the race...I'm running north on SW 34th Street and just topped the hill where that graffiti wall is: you can see a tiny section of it on the right...
Oh, I'd also like to mention what a great job the police did patrolling the streets we ran down and regulating the traffic so skillfully. Also the many volunteers...especially those handing out water and Gatorade...were wonderful. In spite of the adverse weather, I came away from the race with an overall positive feeling, and these good people had a lot to do with that...
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