R and J in the USA

June 20, 2024

It was a hot one at the Watershed Solstice Trail Run in Pennington, New Jersey. Oppressively hot. Official heat warning hot. It may have been a Thursday evening in the Delaware Valley, but it felt like high noon in Death Valley.

Hot or not, we had a race to run. This is the 5Ks in 50 States adventure, after all. Not the 5Ks Whenever It’s Not Too Unpleasant adventure. So off we went along the trails of the Watershed Institute’s 950-acre Watershed Reserve. The course was as pleasant as the weather was not. Gentle ups and downs around ponds and open fields along forest-edge tree lines.

Both of us ran slower than normal, content to take it easy in the heat. Julie was still fast enough to finish 1^st of 5 in her age group and 37^th out of 141 overall, while Ryan finished 5^th of 6 in his age group (yikes) and 49^th overall. Yep. Julie beat Ryan again.

The race was organized by The Watershed Institute, whose mission is to keep water clean, safe, and healthy. The Institute works to protect and restore water and the natural environment in central New Jersey through conservation, advocacy, science, and education. The run raised about $30,000 to support the Institute’s conservation and education initiatives.

In line with their mission, the Institute gave runners collapsible, reusable cups as a race gift instead of the traditional race t-shirt. And instead of cups of water lined up on tables after the race, they had water jugs with which to fill our reusable cups. We made good use of those cups to replace the water we lost during the race. We also took advantage of the post-race garden hose showers provided by the local EMTs for a nice cool down on a hot evening. And our earlier run through the sprinklers made it into the Institute’s post-race writeup.

Detailed Race Report for Running Nerds

Thanks to the official heat advisory in place and a trail running course that was not built for speed, all runners were warned pre-race to set their expectations appropriately – this is not a PR course. Despite the discomfort of the heat, the temperature of the outside air was like a cool breeze compared to the hot box that was our current living space, so we were eager to get out into it. In Julie’s pre-race warm up, within 30 seconds of a light jog that barely clocked in under 11 minute miles, her heart rate quickly shot up into the 130’s…for Julie, this was actually a good thing. Now on race #4 and seeing that the biggest challenge of these races would be Julie’s inability to resist the urge to compete and do what Ryan was showing her how to do – take a few of the races easy. This early signal that running hard wasn’t much of an option helped her settle into it. Since we are running 5Ks once, sometimes twice or even 3 times in a week, we just can’t physically afford to run each of them like a race. But, just as Chris Farley like wingy, Julie like winny – having never had too much of a shot at the podium in her 30’s, it turns out, at 45, she can clean up and that competitive drive is one she is working to reign in. So, this race was perfect for taking it easy, seeing as there really wasn’t any other option. Julie’s entire goal was to run easy – no competing!

By the middle of mile 1, Julie’s heart rate was already north of 160 at a 9:25 pace. Though she felt light and easy, her body was working hard and it wasn’t long until Julie was fighting the 170s just to stay at this easygoing pace. Julie took the hills casually and found Ryan in the middle of the race just in time to run through some relieving and generous mid-race sprinklers together. Keeping things nice and consistent, Julie brought in a 9:29 for her second mile and was feeling the same old mile 3 challenge of a 5K that always feels a bit surprising. It’s only 3.12 miles, but as soon as it becomes a race, it’s hard not to run a pace that hurts by mile 3. Julie did not expect a steady 9:30 pace to produce those kinds of aches and pains and longings for the finish line, but turns out temperature has the last say. Julie picked up the pace just a touch, all the way talking herself off the ledge of really going for it. In the middle of mile 3, she had just the help she needed. She came upon the gentleman that looked to be the president of the watershed institute that had given the pre-race speech. She jogged up along next to him and could tell he was using everything he had and was hitting that wall. “Are you the president of the watershed alliance?” Julie inquired. He squeezed out a yes between breathes. Julie sensed this fella was in one of those moments that Julie knows very well – the moment where you really REEAAALLLY want to slow down and every voice in your head is coming up with reasons why its no big deal, but AFTER the race, you know you will look back at that moment and know you could have kept going. So, Julie thought, the best way to feel noncompetitive is to get on someone else’s team! Since Julie was not out of breathe and feeling fairly light and easy running along next to him, she was also thinking, okay, how do I play this to be supportive but not condescending? She asked, “Would you rather run alone or would you like some company?” “Company is nice.” He replied through huffs and puffs. Great! This was a win-win scenario. Julie was able to resist her urge to speed up which would ultimately hurt her much more in the long run and also get a chance to enjoy running with this gentleman and feel the good feelings of being there for someone. A very selfish act of “generosity”, but she hoped her selfish motivations would be harmless. They ran together the last .6 miles and Julie cheered him on along the way, enjoying the opportunity to focus on someone else – always concerned whether she was crossing a line into pandering, but hoping that the support was landing in a good way. As they approached the finish line together Julie whispered, let’s go for it, and pushed the pace just a little. Thinking, this is the president of the organization, Julie began to wonder if it might be nice for him and for his organization to have a picture of just him crossing the finish line and she backed off for the last 50 feet, again, wondering if her gesture was thoughtful or condescending. Either way, she was pretty excited that she succeeded in her one main goal, don’t run yourself to a finish line where you feel like you are going to throw up for the first few seconds after finishing – just take it easy. Let the competitive drive settle down. After crossing the finish line, Julie’s concerns of condescension were put to rest as the gentleman approached her and gave a heartfelt thank you for Julie’s support, fulfilling her hopes that she wasn’t indeed just a selfish, condescending, patronizing a-hole. What a relief. After all of these wonderful successes, finding out she is not the actual worst and also relaxing into a wonderfully noncomptetive state, something unexpected occurred. For better or worse, this having been a very hot race on a slow course, Julie ended up getting a beautiful wooden medal for first place in her age group…definitley the worst possible feedback she could ask for to settle the competitive beast inside. Quickly forgetting all she had accomplished internally over the last 3.12 miles, Julie grasped the medal and quietly whispered, “my precious”. Uh oh.

As for Ryan’s race report, in his profound reflections, he found the way to sum it up. “It was hot. I was tired.”