Summer Sunrise Watermelon Race Series comes to a close

This morning, I ran the fourth and last race of the Summer Sunrise Watermelon Series, which was hosted by the Lakeland Runners Club.  These are the runs that I also refer to as the Florida Death Runs.  Basically, you run a 5k around a lake.  This might seem easy enough, but then add in Florida's summer temperatures, and you can quickly see where the challenge comes in.  My inspiration in signing up for this was that I thought that if I just ran, I wouldn't find morning running in Florida so bad.  I was completely wrong.  So my motivation about 0.5 miles into the first race was that if I could get through this, what could possibly be so bad about 26.2 miles in December in South Carolina?  Call it mental toughness development.

There is much to recommend this series.  The organization is excellent.  The price can't be beat ($15 for all four races).  If you did the whole series, you got a well-earned medal and t-shirt.  There was ample watermelon at the end, even for us slowbies.  The course, once around Lake Hollingsworth plus a teeny bit, is well-marked and lovely:

Actual photo of Lake Hollingsworth, taken this morning before the race.

The only drawback is the fact that it's in Florida during the summer.  Plus, you start at 7am, which is right around the time that the humidity is at its worst.

I started thinking about the four races as they might be titled if they were episodes of Friends.  There was:

• The One Where the Sun Rose Too Fast and It Got Hot (two people asked if I was going to be okay at the finish line);
• The One Where the Humidity Dropped to 80% and It Wasn't So Bad, Relatively Speaking;
• The One Where Tropical Storm Bonnie was Nearby and It Was Crazy Humid Throughout (one person asked if I was going to be okay at the finish line.  Plus I had to walk parts of it because the conditions were awful);
• The One Where I Finally Adapted (Somewhat) To Florida Heat.

Today's was by far the best of the four; I was still about a minute off from the Salem 5k that I did two weeks ago, but not nearly as slow as some of the previous races in the series (particularly #1 and #3).  Like I said, I have adapted.  Also, I'm in better running shape than I was for the other three thanks to the past month.  I was running before, but mostly aquajogging, which isn't really the same.  Because it's getting later in the season, the sun wasn't so bad today as the first run, where there was a pretty lengthy stretch with no shade -- probably I mean about 0.2 miles or something, but you feel it!  Also, I had my new fancy, wicking visor, which I suspect helped as well.

Whatever the reasons, the important thing is that they are over.  And I did them.  AND I got a well-earned medal: