Hodag Run For Your Life 10K!

Saturday June 30th, I had a chance to run a 10K down in Rhinelander that was put on by the YMCA.  I was concerned about the heat and humidity since the whole week it was warm and I was having a difficult time training.  Got up Saturday morning, had a couple cups of coffee, some oatmeal and got ready to go.  Got down to the race about an hour before start.  Did some warm up exercises, stretched, had a protein shake and banana and waited for the start.  My hip has been bugging me over the last few weeks so I was concerned about it holding up for the duration but knew I would push myself regardless.  The gun went off and I was able to maintain a nice pace for the first couple miles.  I felt the heat starting to get to me about mile 3 but kept telling myself  "I'm a machine and I must simply push through the heat and hip".  Was happy to see water stations about every mile or so and took advantage of it but had to remind myself not to drink too much or I would get stomach cramps.  About 3 miles in I found someone that was about my age and thought I would pace myself about 3 steps behind him and it worked well.  As I passed the 5 mile mark I started to game plan.  I didn't know if this person was in my age group but he could have been so I wanted to wait and push it the last couple blocks before the finish.  As I got about 4 blocks from the finish line the person I was pacing with seemed to slow down and I passed him quite easily.  I looked at my watch and had a chance to PR so I pushed it HARD.  As I crossed the finish line I saw I was about 38 seconds slower than my best 10K time and I was out of gas.  I searched out the shade and someone handed me a cold water and said "You look like you need this more than I do..."  At that point she was my savior!  LOL!  As the results came in I was disappointed to see that I didn't place either so I had a quick massage and headed home.  Good race overall considering my hip was bugging me and I almost PR'd.  Halfway through the race the heat was getting bad and despite my week of so-so training it wasn't as big of a factor as I thought it might be.