Governor's Cup 10K

Coming back from a vacation, I had a pretty good idea how tough running a 10K would be on very little training, plus trying to get over a week's worth of boozing and not sleeping.  Throw in 97 degree heat and elevated humidity, and you have the 2011 Sunflower State Games Governor's Cup. 

I decided to sign up for a race every three weeks until the KC Half in October, just to give me something to keep working towards.  That set of runs started on 7/15 with the Governor's Cup 10K race.  I ran this race last year (Heat Wave) so I had an idea of what to expect.  I do not remember it being this hot last year.

I woke up at 4 PM today in order to give myself plenty of time to eat, drink more water, eat again, and then get to the race that started at 7:30 PM.  Or at least I thought it started at 7:30.  Navigating through the constantly horrific roads in Topeka, now compounded with construction nearly everywhere you go, I made it to the Hummer Sports Park at 6:40, giving myself nearly an hour to hydrate and warm up.  When I got there, I noticed that all the runners were close to lining up and the ceremonial torch had been lit.  I grabbed the first person with a running bib that I could find and asked them when the race started, only to then learn that it was scheduled to start at 7PM.  I'm usually outstanding at details, but this one totally slipped by me.  This gave me about 10 minutes to warm up and stretch, which was not a huge concern to me because of how warm out it was.  I was going to be loose in no time, or I was going to cramp up the whole race. 

I made it to the line in time, and we were off, winding through the Westboro Neighborhood (minus the protesters) (MAP HERE), which was covered with lots of trees.  That was about the only thing to help alleviate the heat, outside of the plentiful water stations.  Also, props to the neighborhood folks who stood out there with hoses and nailed people running by their house.  It really is nice.  The run was nice, with easy hills and lots of down slopes.  A very scenic run through a part of Topeka I've never seen.  By the time I was finishing up, I just wanted to stop.  I'm sure I wasn't the only one.  I ended up not really aiming for a time in this race, because I knew I wouldn't be prepared to run really fast, and the heat was going to kill any non-serious runner.  So, I'll just consider this a nice 6.2 mile workout, and I'll focus on running well in Manhattan in 3 weeks.  Thanks for reading, and until next time...later.