The Summer Crucible

Join me for 100 days.

Run the Quay 10K: 6.1.2024

There's roughly 100 days of “Summer” spanning from Memorial Day through Labor Day, unless you live in The South. Summer down here is often extended through September with another 7 days of excessive heat spread out in October. I’m going headlong into the heat of summer, with the intent of increasing VO2max, strength and stamina.

I’m signed up for the City of Oaks Marathon with a race date on November 3rd, 2024. I will be fully committed to a 16-week training build that begins on Monday, July 15th. Half of the training cycle will be through the hottest 8 weeks of the year! I’ve completed two previous Marathon builds during this same time-frame in 2022 and 2023 and I’m fully expecting this 2024 build to be equally brutal and humbling.

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The Journey Is Better with Friends.

It’s truly something you need to do, something you need to experience to fully understand and appreciate it. My words will barely give a glimpse into the experience of training for the Marathon with a group of dedicated people. If you are reading this and are part of Clayton Area Runners, you are invited to train with me this summer for the upcoming fall race season.

The Marathon is hard. It owes you nothing. It is unforgiving. It will challenge you.

Training for the Marathon takes discipline, determination and tenacity. Motivation is nice, but not required. The training is arduous and eventually will consume most of your time, focus and energy. You must be accountable during training and having someone there to help you stay on course is beneficial beyond words. If you’re not accountable to yourself during training, The Marathon will hold you accountable, most notably at Mile 20.

The Marathon itself is only 26.2 miles. Whereas the buildup can range anywhere from 250-400 miles. It’s those training miles when running with friends is better. There’s a phenomenon that happens when you run with people who keep you accountable, push you outside your comfort zones and provide positive encouragement when times get tough. And sometimes, you just need someone to tell you so “suck it up” and keep going!

So, if you’ve been wanting to complete your first Marathon or doing better at your next one, join me in this journey, find a friend who is also training, or follow along on this blog.

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June 1st, 2022: Day 1

I started The Summer Crucible on June 1st with the run club. This is one of the last races before summer sets in and the humidity makes racing nearly unbearable. We had 25+ runners on course with multiple people setting new PR’s in the 5K and 10K distances. We even had a few kiddos in the 100m dash and the 1-mile fun run!

This race can be an anxiety inducing event because temperatures can range from 50F to +70F at the start. You can never really tell what to expect until a week out. The stories from last year were something out of a Mad Max story, trying to traverse the 10K route under extreme temperatures and everyone just trying to survive!

I looked down at the dashboard of my Jeep and figured it was broken. I wasn’t sure what was happening because the outdoor temperature measured in at 49F! It has to be true because I was later searching for a sweatshirt for the 30 minute drive to the race. This is incredible, 50F and low humidity, could this really be June in North Carolina?

My original commitment to this race was back on January 6th and I wanted to attempt a new PR. My last 10K PR was 53:57 back in November 2023 where I averaged an 8’38” pace. However after lowering my mileage and dealing with this cardiac issue, I was approaching this race as a fun run, and that’s exactly how it went.

I went into this race with no training, no buildup, no expectations and running at an uncomfortable weight. My goal was to show up, enjoy a good 10K run, get some video and pictures of my friends and enjoy the rest of the day. This course is known as having rolling hills and given my current physical condition, I was expecting a pace around 10’30” to 11’00”.

Since I wasn’t racing and knew my time would be slower than the median, I started at the back of the pack. I always enjoy this few of seeing so many people start at the same time. It almost appears that most people are oscillating at the same frequency. After the start, the first mile was mostly downhill which led to a 9’59” mile. The temps and humidity were down and after breaking a mild sweat, mile 2 ended up being a little faster at 9’51”.

I was having conversations with fellow runners, thanking all of the volunteers and overall just enjoying this mostly shaded and hilly route. At no point was I out of breath or felt like I really pushed myself. It truly was an easy, enjoyable, laid back run.

Mile 4 was the toughest with a long uphill battle, but I kept it smooth and didn’t push hard. My pace slowed to a 10’21” and by the time I reached the top, I felt ready to go on strong legs. The last few miles were negative splits at 10’13” and 10’05” and the run was made even better with my friends cheering me on as I rant past the finish line, with another 1.8 miles to go.

That’s right, you read that correctly. The race director charted a course that had us run RIGHT PAST the finish line with another 1.8 miles to go! So, we ran past the finish line, downhill, all while watching the finishers struggle uphill for 0.25 mile to the finish line. It was a sledgehammer to the mind, but I’m ok with it, so I just kept on.

Before I knew it, the race was coming to an end and I felt great. I wasn’t struggling, dehydrated or destroyed. This might be the first race I’ve ever done where I just took it easy and had a fun run.

6.35 Miles | Avg Pace: 10’13” Avg HR: 146 | Best Mile: 9’36” | Feeling: Capable.

For the next 100 days I will be dialing in my nutrition, focusing on hydration and cross training with swimming and weights. Most importantly I will be getting in many long runs with friends and training runs with them during the week. If you’d like to train for your first Marathon with me, you know where to find me.