Tracksmith 5000 – Race Recap 2023

That was one steamy race!

Real feel of: 91*F
Humidity: 70%
Dew Point: 72*F

This was by far the hottest race I have done. In Alaska, most of our races were temps in the 50s and every once in a while a race might be “hot” at 70*F, so a real feel of 90+*F was definitely a new experience for me!

Despite the extreme race conditions, the Tracksmith 5000 was a really great race! And if you live in or near a city that hosts one these events, you should definitely check them out. There’s another one in Minneapolis in August, but we will have just gotten back from Alaska the night prior, so I don’t think I can swing a race the night after being gone for two weeks. Plus, I will have just raced a half marathon three days prior, so I know I wouldn’t be able to perform at my best.

This race recap is coming over two weeks late but that’s life during the summer, right? I ran the Tracksmith 5000 on Wednesday, July , and while it was different to race mid-week and at night, it was such a cool experience.

When I arrived at Hamline University where the meet was held, I was just getting ready to head out for my warm-up when my sister arrived. (She was coming to cheer for me and take pictures.) She joined me for my 1.5 mile warm-up, and then I did my stretches, dynamic drills, and striders. My heat was suppose to start at 8:45 p.m. (usually when I’m going to bed), but then I learned that it was delayed about 15 minutes. Usually this is a little annoying to me because I plan to finish my warm-ups at a certain time, but I wasn’t very nervous for this race, so I didn’t find it as annoying.

Going into most races, I am usually pretty nervous, but this was a little different. I had most of my usual pre-race nerves up until about 20 minutes before my heat started. All of a sudden my usual pre-race nerves disappeared. I knew the heat was going to affect my performance (there was no way it wouldn’t!), so there was less pressure on any performance, and I knew all I could do was run my best and see what the day brought. While I usually have these same thoughts for my race, I knew the heat was going to affect my performance considerably, so a lot of how I did was out of my control.

One nice thing about this meet is that there are pacers for each heat. I have never run with a pacer before, so this was a new experience. (There’s only been a couple of marathons where I have even had the opportunity to run with a pacer, but I just chose to run on my own for those events.) I lined up with the 18:30 pacer, which was my goal finish time. I knew I was going to be running slower than this, but this was the slowest pacer for the heat, so I didn’t have any other option. I knew I would be running off the back of the pack, which seems a little defeating, but I was one of just a few women in the heat, and I knew it was a relatively fast heat, so I did my best to hold my head high and not let this negatively affect me.

I needed a pace of 5:57 in order to run 18:30 (and really I was trying to run 18:29 in order to set a new PR). I went through the first mile in 5:58, which felt okay, but I also knew I wouldn’t be able to hang on for two more miles at this pace. The heat was getting the best of me!

Thankfully, the track had two spots along the inside where they were handing out cups of water; a section of wet, cold sponges; and two spots where they were misting people with a hose. I really appreciated these things because I know I would have done even worse without them.

Prior to the race, I had done my best to set myself up for success with the heat. I hydrated really well prior to the race and made sure to take in plenty of electrolytes. I also tried to do some heat adaptation training by wearing fleece tights, a long sleeve, and jacket during my afternoon runs (and when I ran in the morning) to try and train my body to be able to handle the heat better. It really takes about 14 days to gain all the benefits, and I only had five days, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try and gain some benefits.

I went through mile 2 in 6:09 and mile 3 in 6:12. Honestly, I was proud my pace didn’t drop off too much during the race. The crowds and the people cheering around the track were so great. You knew they were runners themselves by their cheering and words of encouragement. (As in you didn’t hear, “You’re almost there,” during mile one of the race.)

Knowing I would be hanging out in the back, I made it my goal not to finish last in the heat and luckily I did pass a couple guys during the race, which boosted my confidence. I really didn’t look at my watch too much throughout the race because I knew it would probably just defeat me.

I ended up crossing the line in 19:28, which is about what I was expecting. I used this heat calculator tool prior to the race to see what a 18:29 would result in with the predicted weather conditions, and it put me at 19:35. The fun part is when I reversed the calculation and used my finish time as the race predictor, it had me at a 18:14 for a finish time if the weather conditions had been ideal. I don’t think I’m quite at 18:14 shape, but it’s fun to think that it might be possible one day!

After the race was done, I found my sister who had come to cheer for me (and take videos and pictures). It’s always nice to see a familiar face at the end of the race and someone who is a runner to hash out the race. There wasn’t too much to hash out really: it was hot, the water to cool me down helped, and I did what I could.

As I stood there talking to her, I was dripping in sweat, which is so foreign for me. There was literally no breeze, which obviously didn’t help, and I think that was the most I have ever sweat. I was glad the sun had set, so we didn’t have the sun beating down on us as well.

After a while, I headed out for my 2.5 mile cool-down in the dark that wrapped up a little after 10:00 p.m. I then watched part of the last heat, and finally headed to my sister’s for the night. I crawled into bed around 11:30 p.m. but didn’t fall asleep until about 1:00 a.m. because I was so amped from the race!

All-in-all, it was fun to do something totally different, and I definitely plan to do one again next summer!