Name of the race: PPPTC Al Goldstein Summer Speed Series 5K #1
Where: Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
Date: May 25, 2016
Time: 7:00 pm
Distance: 3.1 miles
Terrain: Rolling hills
Entry fee: $5
Swag: None
Post-race Food: Water
Time: 26:24
Performance: Overall: 189/378; Gender: 57/171: Age (35-39) 11/32
Weather: 82 degrees, 25% humidity
Summer is definitely here in New York. While last Wednesday wasn’t the first warm day of the year, it was the first warm day that I tried to race.
Notice I said tried.
Yeah, it didn’t go so well for me.
Every summer my run club offers biweekly evening 5Ks in Prospect Park for $5. You can save money by signing up for 7 races for $25. It’s a great deal if you know that you’re going to do at least six races.
Last Wednesday was the first of the series. Of course we had to sign up in order to support our club. It was warm, but I wasn’t worried about the temperature. My plan was to do the first mile with the hill in 8 min and then see how I feel for the other miles. If I felt good, then I would try to speed up to 7:30-7:45.
Because of the no-frills and low cost nature of this race, there’s no timing mat at the start line. I try to line up near the front, but not at the very front where I would get in the way of the speedier folks. I ran the first mile in 7:56. I’m pleased.
The second mile I ran in 8:27. I’m a little surprised at this split because I didn’t feel bad while running the second mile, but obviously I slowed down.
Right at the end of Mile 2 (like I just passed the guy at the Mile 2 marker who was yelling out our times), a feeling that I needed to throw up suddenly overcame me. I quickly peeled off to the sidelines and stopped. I was thisclose to vomitting. Luckily for me, I didn’t. I drank some water from my Simple Hydration bottle and slowly walked. I tentatively tried to run and immediately had to stop again.
Ugh. The heat got to me. As I slowly walked, I contemplated what to do next. I thought about DNF’ing. I could cut across the field and meet up with Ben at the finish line. I could continue walking to the finish line; 1.1 miles wasn’t so far to walk. I decided to go ahead and finish the race. I started to feel a little better, so I slowly (ugh) jogged. After a half mile, I felt like I recovered, so I pushed my pace more and completed the third mile in 9:06.
As I approached the finish line, my teammates cheered and yelled my name. That suddenly gave me the energy to push, push, push and outkick a runner that I had previously thought would finish ahead of me. I ran the last .1 in 6:44 (speedy!).
My time was 26:24, which is even slower than my other previous recent worst 5K from It’s a Wonderful Run. The bright side of having such a slow time (for me) is that there’s lots of room for improvement. My goal this summer is to get a course PR for this summer series.
A Fast Paced Life 
Good job, despite the heat! That’s not fun when you feel like you need to throw up. You have a cool run club by the way!!
Yeah, I really like the PPTC. There’s always something going on.
This heat is brutal! Way to push through. I am certainly impressed.
Just need to get used to this weather again. Although I’ve lived on this side of the continent for over 10 years now, but it never seems to get any easier. At least I don’t get heat rashes anymore. That was my first year out of CA. I thought I was going to die.
Glad you came out for the race and post-race fun! Racing on the first 80+-degree day of the year was brutal.
Hot, hot, hot! How are you settling into Chitown? Nice beach, btw.