Should anyone be disappointed with a P.R. in hot conditions?

That's the question I have been asking myself since finishing the CDC at 8:00 AM this morning. Here is today's result:

6:38 - Mile 1
6:47 - 2
6:45 - 3
6:41 - 4
6:41 - 5
6:43 - 6
6:49 - 7
13:43 - 8+9 combined
6:53 - 10
7:02 - 11
6:56 - 12
7:51 - 13 + 0.1
Finish time: 1:29:30

You could probably guess I'm a bit disappointed. It seems silly, really, to be down about today's result, which was a 54 second P.R. from last year. After all, the heat and humidity slowed all of us down.

Most runners I talked to afterward struggled. The winning Men's time was 8 min slower than last year. The women's was 10 minutes slower.

I knew it was going to be really warm - and it was - but part of me feels like it also had to do with my training. Mileage volume has been decent - but I know that I need more tempo/L.T. training. This much is clear.

The plan was to be at mile 10 at 1:06:xx - then see if I could knock out something close to a 20 min 5k. Well, as I soon found out, this plan was not feasible today.

I was pleased with a 6:38 first mile. From there on though, I found that I wasn't hitting the 6:38-6:40 splits the way I had hoped. After mile 7, I did not hit another split under 6:50. I hit 10 at 1:07:41 -- and my final 5k was a 21:49 - not the way I wanted finish.

Last year's CDC was enjoyable. I loved that last 5k and finished strong. Today I was a train off the tracks losing power slowly as the sun beamed on my overheating engine. I was spent late miles and I knew it. It was not fun. I couldn't wait today finish.

I am thinking the heat is worth at least two minutes improvement (I hope) . However, the scary thing is today's result matches up perfect with my 5k time of exactly 1 month ago. This is a disappointment because I was counting on tremendous progress.

I was targeting a 1:26:30 in good conditions. I'm not sure the heat added 3 minutes - but maybe it did. Two minutes at least.

Being honest w/myself, right now, I feel like I am progressing toward a 3:03-3:05 marathon time. This is a very admirable time and one that I would be proud of. But unfortunately, this is a long way off from the 2:59:59 target that I had set. I don't like falling short of my goals.

Afterward, Jayhawk and OOSG were kind enough to invite Jen & I, as well as J&L to her stellar apt to clean up and then head to brunch at RockIt. It was AWESOME. Thanx, guys!

Right now, it's back to the drawing board. Chalk this one up a good workout in hard race conditions. I'm not giving up on my goal of 2:59:59. I just need to work harder. Now I have to figure out how I am going to knock out 70 miles this week.

Week recap - 52 miles total. Hot/humid temps all week. Half marathon PR. Good speed work on Tuesday.