Catching up from the weekend and wow there is a lot going on.
Jux, man I am sorry for all went down. Reading up on everything that occurred, I cannot fault the RD, but it still sucks for all that had to pull the plug on the run. The fact that were are not reading about heat strike, comas or even death really does support that ending when they did was right. I ran the Detroit 1/2 a few years back in which 3 runner died and I saw 2 of the 3 receiving CPR (and this was under almost ideal weather conditions) and this messed with my head for quite a long time. I hope you catch a break find good weather for a race early next month.
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I ran the Back to the Beach 1/2 Marathon on Sunday in the same wicked heat a lot of us encountered. Probably the coolest course layout of any 1/2 I've run. It was like 4 different 5K courses strung together. It started on grass and then transitioned to gravel trail, then to darn technical trail with aggressive downhill and switchbacks. Flattened out onto paved bike path for a bit before transitioning to HILLY dirt roads. Next up, more MTB trails with the dreaded mile 8 climb and then back to paved bike path. Finished up on mild trails before hitting the grassy area for the finish. Garmin had the total elevation gain at 495, MapMyRun had it at 503, it felt like a heck of a lot more.
I have had zero training consistency, so I went in thinking if I could keep my HR between 160 and 163, I should be OK. This sure didn't happen, average HR was 169 and I could not keep it below 170 for most of the race. Maxed out at 184, which looking at Garmin history is about as high as I've ever been. The heat messed with my HR greatly. It was almost 70 at the start and was in the mid 80s by the end. My best mile was mile 3 in 8:21, my worst mile 12 in 11:47 and I averaged 9:03 through mile 7 before things fell apart. I finished in 2:10 (9:59s).
During the first mile, I knew I was in for an interesting run. HR was in the mid 170s and I was already drenched and my shirt was heavy. Once I got to flat ground during mile I got more comfortable and was actually cruising along and even chatting it up a bit. This was an incredibly well supported race with 250 volunteers for 1,250 runners and they had 10 aid stations on a 1/2 course. I started taking water at every aid station after mile 3. I also took a couple of Endurolytes at mile 3 as those little electrical cramp impulses were already starting in my thighs. Right at mile 7 I knew there would be an aid station manned by a few BT friends, where I have planned on taking a gel. This began quite a disgusting aid station intake combo. I had a chocolate Hammer Gel and grabbed Gatoraide to wash it down by accident. I knew they had freeze pops and I wanted one bad. I grabbed a yellow one I thought would be lemon, turned out to be Pina Colada. I then grabbed a beer and used it to wash down another Endurolyte, while eating the freeze pop.
Past the aid station the trail lost its shade and I was sick of my soaked shirt so I went to carrying it as it would not stay in my race belt or shorts.
Trail Running Urkel now shirtless with a heart rate monitor on had to be a disgusting thing to see. If I didn't like the shirt so much I would have ditched it as the damn thing felt like it weighed 10 pounds by the end of the race. Next up was the mile 8 hill climb that the RD had stated in their pre-race email that most everyone would walk. Not me, I blew past about 20 runners on the hill, crested the hill and looked at my average pace on the Garmin and saw that going sub 2 hours on this tough course just might be possible and the downhill would be were I would start.
Not so much on the downhill, my left hammy locked on about my 5 downhill stride. I had kind of expected some kind of struggle like this, so I didn't panic. I walked it out and stretched slightly (as I've made the mistake before of over stretching when this occurred and locking something else). This allowed me to change my stride to a triathlon-death march type stride. Me, being me, I knew that there was an aid station about 250 yards away where I could get water and pop a few more Endurolytes. Mentally, I told myself this was perfect training for my two long events later this year, in essence knowing that they'd suck towards the end and this is just part of the prep. I didn't cramp again for the rest of the run (4 more miles past the aid station) but I did have to walk on the downhills to avoid the cramps. This was a bit frustrating and I would pass a bunch of runners on the uphills, only to have them pass me on the way down.
I was able to run the last 1.6 miles straight with the hammy tightening here and there. The start/finish was about 50 yards from the lake. I crossed the line, grabbed a bottle of water and walked right down and into the lake for the best ice bath I've ever had. I stood there, up to my chest for about 20 minutes until my shivering made me get a cramp in my rib cage. I came out, took a shower at the bath house on got one of those free post race massages and felt one heck of a lot better than I thought I would.
You wouldn't think so, but this race is now part of my top 5 favorites and I can't wait to do again next year (with lots more training) and add it to my yearly rotation.
ETA, forgot to give props to Sand on the swim

I hope to get to doing a 2 mile OWS swim some day, but a 5K will never happen. Is there any type of split data? I'd guess not as Gamin provides sketchy swim stats other that total distance.