Artful Lakeland: Mayfaire 2024

 

Tis the Season for one of my staple races that keeps me on my toes. The Lakeland Runners Club’s Mayfaire 5K which was celebrating it’s 45th running. 

I was on the fence about if I wanted to wear the race shirt and my matching purple skort however I wanted something with pockets and so I decided to be emotional and re-wear my Yellow Old Navy active dress that I customized for my Joy Costume at 2023’s Springtime along with my blue Bondi Band and my 2024 Blue Gasparilla ballcap.

Weather Wise it was on the warmer side and as I arrived at the start area about a half hour before race time and had begun to take some selfies I overheard it was 90 degrees feels like 90 however we LUCKED OUT and humidity was ONLY 36% and there was a light breeze.

In the meantime I was hydrating all day plus I had a defrosting bottle of water in my pocket as well as one in a racing belt tucked between the layers of my dress.

This is my first race using my new Garmin and while I did two practice runs in between my 31 hour work week leading into race day I was still getting the feel for it. For example I can’t screenshot pace on the app as I run but I can look at my wrist where sometimes it said a semi accurate pace and other times it was telling me I was at a 6-9 minute mile… ha if only….

I was in wave 8 out of 10 though with my estimated finish time of my pre 2020 PR 42 mins….I know that’s not my goal time and my goal is ideally a sub 50 mins but with the heat I was hoping for just the 53-56 range as it was where my non fun runs in 2024 were hitting so far.

I crossed the start at 7:01  and 13 mins later the first runners were rounding their way toward the finish about to head up Iowa as I was reaching the bottom of the hill at Lake Morton.

Since like I said I couldn’t screen shot time/mile stamps when I reached on course mile markers I’m just going to be listing Garmin Splits on miles from race recaps here on out.  With that being said I reached mile one in 16:50  with a 16:50 m/m

The race is no frills when it comes to entertainment and it eventually turns off Lake Morton for an out and back on Success… just before the turn around was a water table that was near empty. I took a cup of HOT water since my bottle was still half frozen and a few moments later when I passed again there was no water left and still a handful of people yet to approach.

I reached mile two in 33:58 with a 17:08 m/m As I was passing this marker the end of the line was coming up the other side and shortly after this  there was the usual family with wings and bourbon shots set up on the side of the road.

I was shortly back on the lake for my final stretch and soon was back on Iowa approaching Lake Mirror with reaching mile three in 51:02  mins  and pace of 17:05 m/m 

With weaving on course I had another .29 miles to go vs .10 and I wound up finishing with an official time of 55:44 17:55 m/m

RTY

721.43/2024

Upcoming Races

• Watermelon 6/8

• Red White and Brew 7/4

• Watermelon 7/13

• Watermelon 8/10

• Wine and Dine 5K 11/1

• Wine and Dine 10K 11/2

• Gasparilla 15K 2/22

• Gasparilla 8K 2/23

PRs

• 1M {15:26} 3K {30:59} 5K {42:46} 8K {1:13:59} 10K {1:42:52} 15K {2:19:09} 10M {3:01:51} HALF {3:54:55} FULL {7:08:15*} *virtual full run in increments