I started out and it was struggle from the beginning. My pace felt hard but the first mile averaged 9:26 (a pace that should have been my slowest). Soon I was feeling very overheated and had to take a walk break around 1.6 miles because I felt like my head would explode and I was starting to hear voices.

I tried to slow my running pace in hopes of being able to continue running, but I still had to take many walk breaks. I was VERY thirsty and downed a full glass of water at the one stop. I poured a second over my head and that felt nice for a little while. It was a torturefest the rest of the race. I frankly can't believe I beat 83 people to the line because it felt really desperate.

It ended up being a confluence of bad luck and bad decisions. I know that a 10:16 pace is still very good, but it's hard to swallow a full minute more/mile than you're planning on. I made a series of bad decisions (race volunteered day before, didn't drink enough water, too fat!, etc), many things I could control. I also am far from being heat acclimated. When I signed up for this race I honestly expected temps in the 30s at most, so this was a bummer. As a friend told me, I know I am better than this. On to the next!

Would have loved two water stops. I know it's not usually this warm, but it's been a record-setting warm spring and they have several weeks of this to know they might need to try to put in an extra stop.