Flat effort, tried to fake it but the underlying exhaustion asserted itself before too long and I couldn't make it as a result. Last night was no picnic trying to sleep in an unbelievably stuffy room but it's the cumulative effect of night after night of not being able to fall asleep for the past 7-10 days that really did me in. The long days and humid sticky nights have something to do with this, along with having to get up earlier for work. Combined it feels like a seasonal mania to be honest, may be until the end of summer before I can get back into a better sleep pattern. To overcome the lethargy, took in a bit more caffeine than usual. That kept me alert for the remainder of the afternoon but it would have taken a massive dose of amphetamines to get through the effort required by the race. This is leaving aside the effect of the temperature, exacerbated by the decision of USATF brainiacs to move the race back 90 minutes from the original start time. While any benefit to me personally of running earlier would have probably been counteracted by being even less awake, having to race just before the noon hour didn't seem to treat the rest of the field so great.
As for the race itself, hung on to 73 pace or thereabouts for the first four laps, already feeling it start to slip away after 1200m though. Since no one was giving out splits at the back corner (thanks again USATF) and I wasn't checking the clock at the finish line except for 1k and 3k (9:19), all I know is that the last 5 laps took 6:30 to run. Surprised that I never made it to 80 second pace actually, given how desultory the effort was in the latter stages. A shame how things turned out because underneath the fatigue I'm definitely fit right now, as fit as I've been in a while.
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