Run to Remember 11k Race Report: More Work to be Done

I ran the 2016 Run to Remember 11k this morning and my overarching conclusion is that I've got more work to do on improving my fitness, but I'm also happy to have completed the race and the distance.

This race has been held in Baltimore every September 11th since 2002, and is meant to honor those killed in the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, and aboard Flight 93, both victims and first responders alike. It's usually very well-attended (no different this year) and well organized (also no different this year). I've now run the race three times, the last being five years ago on the tenth anniversary. 

This year was the first year that they offered an 11k option. Or, I guess this is the first year I've noticed that this option is offered. I signed up because I thought it would be a good test of where my mileage and endurance stand. Plus 11k is an odd distance, but it's also one that would be fairly challenging, being almost 7 miles. I had done pretty well at the Memorial Day 5k I ran back in May, but this race would be more than twice as long. 

In the end, I took away some good things and some things I need to work on or improve. I finished in a little over an hour, but had to stop a couple times on the course to walk for about a minute or so each time, which killed my per mile pace. Some of that I attribute to simply not pacing myself appropriately, while some part of it can be blamed on a lack of fitness and the weather as well.

September tends to still be a hot and humid month here in Baltimore, and the last couple days before today, it felt more like July than September. High heat and humidity made the heat index crack 100 on Saturday, for instance, and even doing a 5 mile run before 8am that day left me drenched. But the forecast called for the weather to cool off and the humidity to fall finally. Unfortunately, while temperatures would be lower, they were still about 80 at race time this morning, while the dew point was still 68 when I left the house. It made for a steamy morning and it should have made me start out even slower than I did. But no, I was foolish and thought, "EH, I've run in humidity for three months now. I'm fine."

Nope. Wasn't fine. Miles 1-3 were OK, but 4-6 were downright painful and that's where my walking happened. I just felt very winded, although looking at my heart rate monitor, I my BPM stayed well under the peak levels, which was odd. But for me, humidity is insidious because it becomes very difficult for me to cool down in very humid conditions. I hope that I can improve that as I get fitter, though, over time. But today, once I got hot, even walking wasn't really enough to get me cooled down enough not to just red line again a mile later. 

So, in the end, it was a mixed bag of results. Could have been better, but was definitely not a disaster. I was happy to make the distance, but getting there was tough sledding and shows me I really need to continue working to improve my endurance. I've mainly been focused on increasing mileage, but I think I will slow that down, and concentrate on where I am now (4-6 mile easy runs and 10-ish mile long runs) for a while to improve fitness at that level.