slow, but I finished

Today I was to do 20K. Haven't done that since the race a couple weeks ago, and knew it would be a toughie. It was.

First, it was hot by our standards, and humid. It was overcast, and here that means humid in the summer; humid here is a mere 60%, but believe me, it's enough to make one miserable. It was a very warm morning, too - 74F (23.3C) at the start of my walk and 77F (25.0C) at the finish. That's about as warm as mornings ever get here. I drove over to the Jordan River trail because it's flat and pretty, and I haven't been out there in a while (the river was the highest I'd ever seen it, BTW, and looked like it had been higher in the past few weeks!).

Secondly, I foolishly ate a rather large frozen yogurt treat last night. I thought that will all the probiotics I'd be OK. NOT. I had horrible GI trouble this morning, cramping and having to stop twice for the bathroom.

By 6.5km, I was pretty worried. I was so tired already! I wondered if I'd be able to finish. Good thing I did an out-and-back route or I would have been tempted to throw in the towel. Fortunately, I perked up a bit when I turned around at 10K, and then at 16K got a bit of a second wind after seeing another racewalker (of course I knew her!) and stopping to talk with her.

I took jelly beans (sports beans) at 10K and 15K, and that helped, and I drank a LOT of water. Needed it in the heat. When I finished my face was crusted with salt. Good thing I had the sports beans.

Regardless, my legs were tired today, I generally felt fairly tired and crummy, and I was just glad to be done. I had to stop a lot for restrooms, water, etc. :(. My time is quite slow compared to other 20Ks this year, but it's one of the faster ones I did last year, so that shows my improvement that a slow time now is my former fast time.

My coach said it would be tough building back up again and I knew he was right. He always is! I'm glad he told me to take it a bit easy and not worry too much about the time. For now, what matters is getting my mileage base back up there for the marathon, which isn't too far off.

Pet peeve of the day: slower walkers taking up the entire 2m-wide pathway. One guy with his two dogs on retractable leashes was hogging the whole thing and of course didn't hear me approach. Another couple and their dog managed to block the whole thing as well. Grrrr. At least the bicyclists were polite and pretty careful this morning.

Summary: total time 2:09:36, ave HR 146, 6:29/km pace. Splits: 5K 31:35, 10K 32:48, (1:04:23), 15K 32:50, (1:37:13), 20K 32:23 (2:09:36). Could be worse, I guess. At least the splits were fairly even.

I am SO tired now. Nap time!!!!!

Garmin connect data here.