Sat 7/20 - AM 80 minutes incl. 7 mile road race

More or less successful trip to Gloucester to run in truly dreadful conditions. "Success" defined here in monetary rather than performance terms. After yesterday's hottest day of the year, the dewpoint went up and stayed there stubbornly overnight which made for very poor sleeping. The absolute fucking pits. Woke up half-dead to temps stuck in the high 70s and already trending up. Tried all the hot weather tricks but the length of this event alone ensured they would be of limited effect regrettably. Also, right calf and butt both feeling stiff and pinched so I knew they'd be bothering me before too long as well. Thankfully the field was decidedly low-key, decided from the get-go to shoot for second place by staying with the guy who looked to be the winner long enough to detach from everyone else and then play keep away. This is how it unfolded but it wasn't that easy. The course, some of which was on the same roads as the Magnolia 5k I've done before, rolled and curved relentlessly. None of the undulations were that extreme but the cumulative effect was exasperating. Every downhill strained the right leg a bit more of course. With the soul-crushing heat and humidity I was in survival/maintenance mode after the first mile. That was coincidentally the only mile under 6 minutes for the entire thing. The next five miles were all between 6:00 and 6:10 except for mile 5 which was closer to 6:30, relatively more climbing on that one. The last mile was truly get it over with time, by the end I was well into the cooldown and probably did the last 800 in close to 4 minutes. Worth noting that the slower 5th and 7th miles also included stops for water, literally stopping at the table so that I could both drink a cup and pour another over my head, all while staring back down the road to see if anyone was coming. Needless to say, the pace overall was a joke, but again it's all about the conditions and not just today but the past week wearing me down. Finished feeling as overheated as I could remember, spent the next ten minutes with my hands dunked in icewater to lower core temp. Cooldown after that was a very slow putter taking in the vicinity of the start/finish area, incl. the beguiling Half Moon beach where I wrapped up with a soak in the ocean.