PC: Fit & Able

With heavy rain hour after hour leading up to my second participation in the Pups & Pastries 6.5-Miler on September 14, 2024, in my neighborhood of Cary, North Carolina, inevitably causing suffocating humidity with the temperature resting significantly higher this time in the mid-to-high-70s, I accurately predicted I would not be running anywhere near as fast on this cross-country-like course that understandably had formed sections of mud. Furthermore, as petty as this sounds, at the packet pickup, a volunteer asked what color shirt I preferred, and when I said green, ironically or coincidentally I was the only runner given a leftover from previous years, the same one I received two years ago; when I asked to switch, she replied, once taken out, she cannot put it back, which frustrated me because I had not even touched the shirt and virtually every other participant who checked in before and after and requested green was wearing or holding the new design. I quickly shook it off to remove any negative energy.

PC: Fit & Able

I would be running the same wide loop three times, followed by a smaller loop and a massive climb to conclude the race. I have run on this exact course two times prior, and likely thanks to the ideal weather, I did not notice the hills to the extent I did here, already shooting my heart rate up by the second big loop. In the third, I added moments of power-hiking, seeing how slowly I was running anyway and how much more keeping running was sapping my endurance, then I returned to my standard pace once the hills subsided. In the final climb of nearly half a mile straight, I briefly fast-walked a couple of times and crossed the finish pushing as hard as I could, in 1:00:52.61, over two minutes slower than my past experience here but sufficient for second place in my age group of 35-39. No chance I would have even considered walking on these hills, albeit momentarily, had the race taken place even 10 degrees cooler, especially in such a short distance. I cannot wait to start running in the cold again.