52 Weeks, 52 Runs. No. 38: A big sweaty blur

I have been struck with an affliction that I’m going to call 5K Brain. When I sat down to write about last weekend’s run, the 10th annual Marcia Lemkin Lung Cancer Foundation 5K, I could barely remember it. This has nothing to do with the quality of the race or the excellent cause it supported. I guess when you do one run every weekend (and sometimes two), there’s going to come a time when they all bleed into one giant, sweaty, event.

Contributing to my case of 5K Brain this particular weekend was the fact that the Marcia Lemkin run was in Lowell, MA, site of the Jack Kerouac 5K, the First Run 5K, and the Hynes Tavern 5-Miler. You can see how a girl might get confused. (Maybe we should just move there and save ourselves the drive.)

Pre-race scenery in downtown Lowell.

But I place the real blame for my problem firmly on the sun (because obviously it’s not my fault). It has turned my mind into a big pile of melty mush. Extensive scientific research (i.e, reading all the blog posts in which I complain about how hot it’s been) proves it. Running over and over and over and over in the heat has melted my brain.

High-tech start

I do remember that this run was quite lovely at the outset, scooting along the Merrimack River and past the old mill buildings for which Lowell is famous. I was fine for about the first mile. But then we were out on the road and it was hot. Crazy hot. Flaming-face-inducing hot. Being out on the unshaded roadway with the cars whizzing by made it worse. This is where 5K Brain kicks in, and I can’t visualize the rest. I know it continued for another two miles. I know I gave Hubby the death stare when I got close to the end and handed off my water bottle so I could sprint galumph unencumbered across the finish. And it definitely finished uphill. But that’s all I know.

Great beginning along the river.

I can visualize the aftermath though. We cooled off in a high school cafeteria, where there were bread products as far as the eye could see (bagels, loaves, savory sticks). You’ve got to love a run with great sponsors.

There was also one of those raffles where you buy tickets and put them into various buckets depending on what you would like to win. Now, I don’t know whether there weren’t a lot of entries or we were just ridiculously lucky that day, but we cleaned up. We won gift cards to Shaw’s, the Outback Steakhouse and iTunes, as well as vouchers for more ice cream than the two of us could possibly eat given that one of us can’t eat ice cream (we bequeathed them to a family with a lot of kids).

So, all in all, it was a good day. It was another small event with a great cause: funding for lung cancer research, treatment, and publicity for early detection programs. Non-smoker Marcia Lemkin lost her life to lung cancer when she was in her 50s. Lung cancer kills more women generally than breast, ovarian, and cervical cancer combined. It’s ridiculously underfunded compared to breast cancer, so I was more than happy to send some of my money in this direction. Every little bit counts, right?

I’d like to do this run again next year. Maybe then I’ll actually remember it.

The event: Marcia Lemkin 5K
The location: Lowell, MA
The date: August 26, 2012
My time: 32.38 (pace: 10.32)
Hubby’s time: 20.44 (pace: 6.42)
The cause: Marcia Lemkin Lung Cancer Foundation
The T-shirt: Fluorescent yellow Brooks tech tee
The aftermath: Bananas, bread, granola bars