August 18, 2025 • 35 mins
This week on The Back of the Pack Podcast, we recap a packed weekend of racing with two 10Ks back-to-back. First up: the Rexy Run in Lawrence, KS, celebrating its 10th year of supporting Baby Jay’s Legacy of Hope and the families it serves. Then we hit the pavement again for the Hearts for Ronald McDonald House Charities 10K, another powerful community race with a meaningful cause. But both events had one major opponent — the weather. With real-feel temps pushing near 100 degrees, sky-high humidity, and dew points in the 70s, it wasn’t just a test of fitness — it was survival mode. We break down how extreme heat affects the body and the mind, and why struggling in those conditions doesn’t mean you’re a weak runner. If you laced up this weekend, you’re tougher than you think — because finishing in those conditions is an accomplishment all its own.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hello, where everyone, gritties and salentations, Welcome back to another
episode at the Back of the Back podcast. I'm your host,
Kyle Walker. Thank you so much for tuning in. It
is Monday here in mid August, and this has been
one of the hottest, nastiest August. This is I have
ever seen in my life. Boy, it is gross out there.
But hey, more on that later. If you're not paying
attention to the Friday episodes, this is the week. On Friday.
(00:33):
This week we will celebrate our two hundredth podcast episode.
So a big thank you to everyone who has ever listened,
who has ever contributed, who has done anything to keep
this thing going. I really do appreciate it. Last Friday's
episode we talked all about the new Chasing Rabbits run
club that's coming up this Thursday evening at Discourse Brewery.
I'm very excited about that. I have actually been going
(00:53):
a little too crazy purchasing things and to get this
thing launched. I'm actually super stoked about it. I think,
if nothing else, we're just going to have a good time.
This is not going to be some kind of very
serious running thing. This is just going to be fun.
There's no two ways about it. So I am super
(01:14):
excited for that, and I hope you will join me
this Thursday at Discourse Brewery ninety seventh the Metcalf, six
thirty pm. Three miles. That's the most we're ever gonna do.
And again, again, you will never be left behind because
I will always be the guy at the back of
the pack who's gonna make sure that everyone gets back
to the barn and can enjoy their adults beverage or
their glass of water before we're done for the evening.
(01:36):
So again, hope you'll join us. Going to be super
fun this week. What did we do? Well? I think
we know what we did. We did two back to
back ten ks, one of which I have talked about
for a very very very long time. The other one
I have definitely referenced quite a bit. So let's go
ahead and dive into our reviews of Saturday's REXI Run
ten k in Sunday's Hearts for Ronald McDonald House Charity
(01:57):
ten k. I'm gonna say this right off the bat,
right off the jump, no race is ever perfect, all right,
And so I'm going to give my feedback and I'm
going to give my race review. Both race directors know
that I am always honest and that I love them
both dearly, and that no race is perfect. So did
both of these races have a couple issues? Yes? They did,
(02:20):
so we're going to get into that now before we
go any further than that. Are any of those issues
enough to stop me from being there next year? No
they are not, because I will absolutely be at both
of these races next year, ready to run yet again.
So the first thing overarching story for both races this
entire weekend, of course, the weather. We were in scary hot,
(02:46):
dangerous weather patterns, issues, whatever's this weekend. This was a
new level of hot that we have not dealt with
much in this area this year. For whatever reason, Mother
Nature decided this was the weekend to really pour it on.
It was absolutely a contributing factor. So if you did
well this weekend, kudos to you. You you had the
(03:09):
brass monkeys to go out there and slap Mother Nature
directly upside her head. I did not have said brass monkeys.
Mother Nature won Kyle zero one hundred percent this past weekend.
I guess if you count both races, she is two
and zero on this mid August weekend. Because boy, hottie.
Did I get destroyed? Anyway? Saturday morning, REXI Run. All right,
(03:30):
we are up out of the hacienda and we are
heading off to Lawrence, Kansas to Broken Aarra Park, same
place they have always held this race, at least always
as far as I can remember. For the tenth anniversary
of REXI Run. REXI Run has gotten well, They've gotten
back to their numbers. I think they actually set a
new record this year. I'm pretty sure I heard them
say that. I think this was their biggest year yet.
(03:52):
I know that the day before the race they had
to stop taking not race day registrations, but they have
to stop taking pack pick up registrations because they officially
sold out. So what a wonderful problem to have. What
a great group of people to have. This problem happened to.
They had to start turning people away because there just
weren't gonna be enough shirts, metals and things for runners,
(04:14):
so they had to stop taking pre race registrations. Again.
Love to see it. So we head down, we get
our packets. I am at that park early. Okay, they
say the packet pickup starts at six thirty am, because
the race starts at seven thirty am. I was pulling
in at six thirty am. Already the first church parking
lot was already full. There were tons of people parked
(04:35):
over at the park, and there were people walking down
from the school that has other parking as well, so
I was not the only person who was going to
be early. This place was hopping before the sun even
got up in the sky. And again you love to
see it. So I get parked behind the second church,
my youngest back of the packet and I we head
on over. We get our packet, we get our nice
little shirts that you can see I'm wearing right now.
(04:56):
Let's see my microphones in the way. Rexy Running twenty
twenty five, the big old in on it again, ten
year anniversary, Super great. Get our stuff, throw back in
the car, and then we are just kind of meandering
around until it's time for the race to start. We
find runners to talk to, we find our run fan.
You know, people are taking pictures, things are being discussed.
It's blah blah blah. We're talking. We're standing in one
(05:19):
place talking and already everyone is just dripping with sweat.
It was such a disgusting morning. Let me tell you
what we had. Okay, here was the morning of REXI run.
I even wrote it down. On Saturday, we had a
real feel. Okay, that's real feel, of course, is the
heat and humidity all you know, mix together. Here's what
it really feels like outside. Feels nasty, is what it
(05:40):
feels like. Saturday. We had a real feel of ninety
nine degrees humidity at sixty five percent in a due
point of seventy three. Again, we're gonna be back to
that in a little bit, but that's what we were
dealing with. So everyone is already dripping with sweat. There
are people who went out to get pre miles before
the race. There are people who got post miles after
(06:00):
the race, as everyone is in their training for their
fall marathons. And to you people, a you're crazy, be
good job out of you. I could not fathom trying
to do more miles on Saturday in that weather than
I was going to get at that ten k. My
six point two was going to be good enough for me.
Should be, no, is it? Yes? Anyway, the race begins,
(06:22):
the ten carires do get a head start, which is nice.
The only thing that I don't particularly care for in
personal preference me, this is not something wrong with the race.
But you know, they've got their timeframe, they've got things
that got to be reached. They've got roads that got
to get open, and courses they got to get open
back up. You don't have all day. But it's really
only about a five minute head start for the ten cares,
(06:43):
So before you know it, the faster five cares are
blown right past you as you're going down. It's not
a narrow sidewalk, but it's a very standard sized sidewalk
going down into the park. I believe it is close
to the wetlands either which way. The ten cares do
not get the course to themselves for very long and
this year, because they had two of the longer distances,
(07:04):
the ten cares in the eight kres ran together to
start the race. So we started at seven thirty. The
five k started like seven thirty five. And of course,
as a slower ten care, all I'm doing is running
along hoping that someone I know doesn't pass me. Who's
running the five k, And here I'm slowly running the
ten I don't think it happened. I know it didn't happen.
I don't think it happened Saturday. It certainly happened on Sunday. Anyway,
(07:26):
we'll get back to that. So the ten carriers off
the same course as we're used to. So down the
hill we go. Once we wrap around the park, down
the hill towards the wetlands, make the right turn on
the path. You kind of have a very long, steady,
not particularly steep, but a steady uphill within that first
mile of the race. So already again you're dripping with goo.
(07:46):
You're going up a hill, You're trying to pace yourself right,
and the weather's just fight me all the way. And
the problem is once you make this right turn, kind
of after you're done with the start of the race,
you're still with you you first mile, the shade it
goes bye bye. It is gone. It is done. You
are out in the middle of the wetlands. And it's
called the wetlands. It's not called the tree lands, it's
(08:08):
not called the shade lands. It's just the wetlands where
there's just a lot of kind of low lying vegetation
amongst the path, no trees. So anyway, you get up
to the top of that hill, you are hot. You
make the left, you are hot. You go down the
hill to the first aid station. Guess what you are?
You are hot now. The first critique of REXI run.
(08:29):
And you guys know this. You even told me this.
I'm aware of this. Everyone was aware of this. Ran
out of water at the first aid station. No no, no, no, no,
can no run out of waters on days like this.
But trust me, you're not the only people to have
this problem. In hinting wink. So there is the one
problem with Rexy Run. They did have aid station issues.
Those happen. I can almost guarantee you they will not
(08:50):
happen again next year, because I know Christina and she
is going to make sure there's so much water there
that they could flood the wetlands if they so desired.
Either which way, you're past the first aid station and
then you get onto the kind of the crushed limestone trail.
I swear this used to be like full blown gravel.
Now it was more just the crushed limestone and dirt.
So I don't know if they've redone things or my
memory is getting bad. Could be either, could be both,
(09:10):
could be neither, whatever, But either way, you're on that,
You're you're wheeling back around the wetlands. You meet up
with the first path that you started on, and then
the five carriers make their left head back to the
park and finish up eight carres and ten cares continue
on to what did they call it, to the Wall
of Death. And so I'm just trying to figure out
why are people talking about the wall so much? Okay,
(09:30):
now I get it. So you go up this hill
and there is one of those I guess it's supposed
to be kind of a noise canceling wall next to
the highway, next to K ten and so it's so
that the traffic noise does not just kind of flood
right over. So it's one of those big, kind of
reddish walls, I don't know, eight ten feet high something
like that. It's a big mamajama. What that big mamajamma does, though,
(09:53):
is reflect sunshine and hold on to the heat. And
so as you're on the trail next to the Wall
of Death, you are feeling the heat just radiating off
of it. And again, when you're already near one hundred
degrees radiating heat not really what you want to feel.
And you go down. You go all the way down
the Wall of Death from where you pick it up
to where it ends and that's where the eight K
(10:16):
turnaround is is at the end of the wall. Ten
kre's got to continue on. You get a nice downhill
to whatever that main road is. You take a left,
you go under the overpass, you take another left, you
go up this little frontage road with nothing on it.
You turn around and there's an eight station there at
the turnaround, which was nice. They had I think it
was for a cross country team. They had a little
shade of ten for all of them. They're handing out water.
(10:37):
They with three. That's kind of technically your ten k
turnaround at that point. You turn around there and then
you go back the way you came. Now that really
nice downhill that you had at the end of the
wall is now an uphill to the beginning of the wall,
and then you're next to the wall of death. Yet again,
it was nice. There were some cheerleaders out there. There
was high schoolers. I don't know what their club was,
(10:57):
if it was a cross country team, if it was
a track team, who was just students getting together, whatever,
but they were cheering people on. They were very excited,
very exuberant in their cheering. So that is always a
really cool thing to see and here it is helpful,
especially at this point. I wasn't riding the struggle bus.
I was driving that son of a gun. Everyone could
just get on board because I put the little Captain's
hat on and the struggle bus was under my control
(11:20):
at that point. Actually, nothing was under my control at
that point in time. So we're back along the wall
of death. No fun at all. Hot, hot, hot, And
again there's nothing that either of these races this week
it could do about the heat. So don't ever hear
that out of my voice or my tone or whatever
I'm saying. That heat was uncontrollable. Clearly mother nature wins,
(11:41):
and it was just awful. So at this point, at
about three miles in, about halfway down with my ten k,
I was kind of mentally done. It was hot. It
was simply survive in advance for me, I was feeling
every bit of that heat. I thought I had been
training well enough in the heat to be ackling made it.
You cannot acclimate to this kind of nasty because we
(12:05):
don't get enough of this kind of nasty in this
area to be acclimated. Now I know that Lisa down
in Huntsville, Alabama is laughing at us like you big
Midwestern whimps. And I know that running up that Hillary
down in the southern part of Texas is saying you
clowns are a bunch of princesses, or whatever she might say.
(12:26):
I saw on her princess phone yesterday doing a reel,
so it's in my head. I get it. You guys
live in much hotter areas, but you get the much
hotter much more often than we do. We don't get
this level of nasty constantly up here, and so when
we do, it really sucked. All right, it wasn't hot.
It was hot, and I didn't like it, So don't
(12:46):
make fun of me, your big mean influencers you. So anyway,
after the Wall of Death, we finally get to our
right turn that takes us back towards the finishing park.
Make the right turn. But but, and Christine even said
this on the podcast when she came on last week,
so this was not a surprise. But as we're coming
up the path, you see the right turn into the park,
you see the finish line, You see the food trucks,
(13:08):
you see the people celebrating, you see the inflatables, you
see the cost players, you see people drinking water and
holding metals who are not nearly as tired as you
currently are, because maybe they do the five k or
maybe they're much better ten kre You see all this,
but you must continue straight. You do not get to
make the right turn into the park. You get to
make a left turn into the park later because now
you have the out and back up to the school
(13:30):
that you have to do to get your last little
bit of mileage. So you pass the entrance to the park,
you go up the hill. This is where I came
to a completely dead stop and talk to race director Christina,
who was standing there on the side of the road.
We talked for like two minutes, so that was fine
with me because I was having a horrible ten k
as it was continued on up the hill to the school,
through the school parking lot, and yes, I'm on a sidewalk,
(13:51):
I'm in a school parking lot. You think there's a
lot of shade in either of those places. No, we
get to the end of the parking lot, we turn
around and we come back. Now it's back down the hill.
Now it's a left endto the park. But when you
go into the park, it is not a direct shot
to the finish line. No, No, you go into the park,
you make a left down this offshoot parking lot, you
go all the way round the off shoot parking lot,
then you come back out. Then you go down the
(14:13):
circle and around the path, and then you finally get
to the finish line. Good lord, when you are amazingly hot, uncomfortable,
and unhappy, all the extra that you have to do
in the park is just enough to spin you into
the next dimension of pissed off again. Not the race's fault.
Do you want your miles? Do you want your miles?
If you want your miles, you gotta do the course
(14:34):
that they drew up that gets you your miles. That's
what you have to do. You don't get a choice.
Even though I just wanted to directly be line to
the finish line, and I wanted to just sit there
and cry like a little girl. Man, it was hot,
good lord, anyway, it was nice. I finished up the
last bit of the race, all that stuff I did
with in the park, I walked with Penny, came across
(14:54):
a great pacer, Penny, and so we just walked it together,
shooting the breeze to finish up, because at that point
neither of us gave two shreds of a shit pardon
my French kids about that race and about finishing. It
was hot, so anyway, finish got the metal. I needed
to sit down for a couple of minutes because I
was pretty lightheaded, pretty low on the old blood sugar.
(15:16):
This heat takes it out of you, man, It really does,
like kind of next level takes it out of you.
Talk to folks for a while. Got the metal, which
let's show you right now. Let's show you right now.
All right, so here we go the tenth anniversary Rexy
Run Metal. All you see is glare. I'm trying to
get no glare. There you go there it is Rexy
Run ten. And then if you look behind me here
(15:38):
see it's gonna link up right here with the other one.
So then we're gonna have our three piece medal. Right
there see it Boom, that's gonna be pretty. Now. I
gotta get a safety pin on it, and I gotta
get it hung correctly, because oh it does stay. Hey
if that falls off, you guys can laugh either way's right.
So we finished up. We did go my daughter and
I did go visit some of the food trucks to
(15:58):
try and support the venders who came out the children's
race looked like they had a ball, looks like they
had a blast. There were bouncy houses there, there was
the food you could buy. I completely screwed up and
I did not put in any tickets for the quilt.
So whoever won the quilt enjoy I know that most years,
if you didn't know this, if you ever go and
(16:19):
you put in the raffle for the quilt, normally, when
you win the quilt you just donate it to that
year's honorary Rexy Amelia. I hope that that's what happened.
I don't know, can't say for certain, but I hope
it is. And so we finally got out of there.
It was again it was so damn hot, just so
damn hot for me. For the rest of that day,
it was really just rest and recover because we had
(16:40):
a ten k the next morning. So there was not
a whole bunch of extracurricular activities show we say following
the race, but REXI run. We did have one aid
station problem, and I know that there are probably a
few other things. Some people did not like that the
school out and back was put at the end and
not the beginning. Okay, that's a preference. I get it.
If you didn't like it, totally understand. And then I
(17:01):
guess there was some issues with Age Division awards not
having enough to cover everything, or they were out or
whatever the situation was. I am sure Christina is more
than aware of it, more than on it. She will
get awards to those who need to get awards, no problem.
I have no doubt about this. I do understand the
frustration of not getting a day of Okay, I get
that too. So again, what I can say with almost
(17:23):
one hundred percent certainty is this year's problems will not
be repeated next year because this is a race that
does learn from their mistakes. They know if there is
an issue, we will solve. It doesn't mean there's not
going to be twenty other issues next year that are
kind of unforeseen. I get that that happens. So again,
we take no marks off REXI Run. There's always room
(17:44):
for improvement. No race is perfect, no race ever except
for the one that I put on of course that
was perfect in every way. Yeah right, but REXI Run.
Love you guys. Two thumbs up for this year's event.
The tenth anniversary was amazing. Everyone goes to anniversary years.
Next year's going to be year eleven. Let's not fall
off too much. Okay, kids, let's all make sure we're
still there. If you went and ran that race this year,
(18:05):
you know that's a good race. You know that it's
a great cause and that they really try and do
it up for an entire family day there at the
park that morning. So please consider supporting them again next year.
I think they're always the third Saturday in August, so
just go ahead and put it on your calendar. Cool. Cool,
all right. So the next morning we're going completely the
(18:25):
opposite direction from Lawrence, Kansas, and we were heading up
to Parkville, Missouri for the Hearts for Ronald McDonald House
charity again, a race we've done before. Just did it
last year. My boy, Jeff race director, loved this guy.
Was the race perfect? No, it was not. What was
the problem again? Aid Station First, aid Station also runs
(18:48):
out of water. Here's what happens, folks abnormally hot, crazy hot,
crazy hot temperatures, and they also have to shut down
registration as they are so and they are having their
biggest run ever, so you have more people than you
budgeted for. You have higher temperatures than you were prepared for.
More water is going to get drunk on the course.
(19:09):
So if you run out of cups, you run out
of water in the cooler, or whatever your situation is,
you're screwed at that point. But people need more. People
need that stuff because they need the water in so
damn high. So I know that there were people who
were using a drinking fountain that was next to the
age station. They themselves, the aid station, were trying to
fill things up at the drinking fountain and get them
(19:29):
back to the table. So you know, you get your
rusty tetanus water. I get it. And credit to them
for at least trying. They were trying to do their
best to help all the runners even after they were
out of supplies. So huge credit to that aid station. Again,
I didn't experience it. There were still some cups left
when I went by. I guess it got a little
worse after the fact. Another race where the ten k
(19:50):
starts before the five k so as ten kres were
perfectly supported. The five kres, especially towards the middle and end,
were the ones that did not get their water. Okay,
so let's let's that's that's the complaint though, and we'll
get to the other. I have one other complaint and
we're gonna get to that too. And again, complaint is
a strong word. This is feedback, and I know that
these will not be repeated again, so I'm not even
(20:12):
worried about it. We all survived, barely, but we all survived.
So we get up. We had to Parkville, Missouri, no
one with me, just me, myself and I. That morning,
I actually felt fine. I really wanted to go out
there and have a good race. English Landing Park is
not a difficult course. It is very flat. It's more
shaded than REXI run, but there are still periods where
(20:33):
there is not a lot of shade, especially if you're
doing the ten k. And so we get there, we
see everyone get the stuff. They have a food truck
out there. They've got a couple of vendors. The Saint
Joseph Marathon was there with the table. There was another
five k president and I don't recall them. Their name
right now is a breast cancer awareness one. Ah, that's
gonna make me feel like cramp. Of course. The tent
(20:53):
for Ronald McDonald House Charities was there, and then they
had tons of coolers around the area with waters or
sodas or whatever that people could get to because it
was so stinking hot. So we start the race seven thirty.
The ten Cares begin at seven thirty. The five Carris
we're gonna start at seven forty five. Away we go.
This is a big loop for the first I mean
(21:15):
it's pretty much a big loop for the first five k.
Once the five carriers turn off, it's an out and
back for the ten Cares to get kind of the
second half of that race. So we began, we're going around.
My first screw up of the day, and again, this
is mine. This is I can't blame this on anyone else.
I had my garment ready and when I crossed the
start line, I hit the button. Apparently it did not
(21:36):
read that I hit the button, So I went almost
the first half mile without my garment going And like,
is that a big deal in the grand scheme of things? No?
Is it annoying though that when you start it later.
Now you're way off from the mile markers. And credit
to Art's Ronald McDonald Ha's charity, they had mile markers
this year, I guess their first time ever. They had
some made so there's a mile markers, but I'm not
(21:56):
beeping anywhere close to them because I'm now like off
by almost a half. So everything was screwed up, and
now my garment has me measured short. So I didn't
really get credit for that ten k, not that I
ever really want to think about my time on that
ten k again, but that was just like, immediately out
of the gate, I'm already screwed up, and I'm already thinking,
oh no, this is terrible, but I continue on. I'm
(22:17):
moving out a decent clip. Probably went out too fast
for the temperature. It didn't feel like it. It felt
like my normal gait. But in this kind of weather,
you can't really go out on your normal gate, or
you shouldn't, or some of us just physically can't keep
that going for very long. First mile was good, got
to that first aid station, went through that, got to
the second mile. At this point, I'm just already pouring sweat. Okay,
(22:39):
So let's go to our Sunday temperature. Sunday we had
a real feel of ninety six degrees a humidity at
seventy ninety percent any duo point to seventy four. So
even though Saturday was hotter. It was drier Sunday, not
quite as hot three degree difference, but much higher humidity
(23:00):
higher due point. The Sunday race was actually worse temperature wise,
like real feel outside, all of it. Everything was worse
on Sunday. It was nasty. So by mile two I'm
already struggling. All right, legs are a little tired from
the running the day before. I am just depleted. Maybe
after REXI run, I did not rehydrate well enough. Actually,
(23:21):
there's no maybe about it. I'll guarantee you I didn't well,
I didn't do anything stupid. I didn't do anything beneficial.
Another big problem. So at mile two, already hitting the
struggle bus. Dan has already flown around me, and here
come the five Cares, the five cares that started after
me are now starting to pass me at mile marker two.
And then some people I know, and again they are
(23:41):
fast runners, and they're doing the five k and they're
hauling ass and they only have to take one trip
when they haul ass, where I have to take two.
They start going around me, and I see the verks
go past me, and I see a man to go
past me, and I'm thinking, well shit, I am really
dragging ass here, so I tried to pick it up
a little bit. I go around the horn, I go
up and over the bridge. Everyone knows that walling bridge.
And I go down and I'm really just trying to
(24:02):
run it out to where the five carriers have to
make their left turn to go finish, and I continue
straight because if I get past that point, they can't
pass me anymore. And so I do finally get past
that point with only I think three maybe four people
I know who passed me and saw, oh, Kyle sucks today,
you weren't wrong, and out we go. We go out,
We leave the realm of the park and we go
(24:23):
on to just the sidewalk that goes around the businesses. Okay,
we had to go around the businesses and up the trail.
And then when we get to the parking lot is
the ten k turnaround. You've heard me mention the ten
k turnaround at the Hearts for Ronald McDonald House Charity
ten k before because it's my most favoritiest aid station ever,
because Jeff always had the coldest water in all of
(24:46):
human history at this aid station. I craved it. I
looked forward to it like it almost had me salivating, thinking, Oh,
I'm gonna get a drink of that cool, cool water.
The AID station wasn't there. It was nothing but cones
and a U turn sign. There was no AID station
(25:06):
outside the realm of the park when you got on
that path and got to that parking lot. There was
never an AID station outside of park property. I am
sure this was a strategic decision made or someone just
didn't show up. I don't know what it was, but
(25:26):
if I have one beef, one gripe, because again, the
AIDE station that ran out of water didn't affect me,
and that sounds very selfish. But again I can't speak
too much on it because I only heard about the situation.
I didn't experience it. What I did experience was the
absolute heartbreak and crushing of my hopes and dreams when
I got to that AID station that wasn't there, that
(25:48):
was supposed to have the crystal cool water that was
at the ten K turnaround where I was dying of thirst.
We were all hot, it was deadly hot outside and
it wasn't there. And so I turn around and I'm
going back down there, down the hill and around the corner,
and I'm heading back and I'm just I mean, I'm
walking basically at this point, I'm pretty sure I walked
the last two miles of this race. I just that
(26:09):
that crushed me. And to the point I come across
Jose come in the other direction and uh, I'm holding
my do rag. You guys know I normally wear like
a rag on my head. Well, i'd already taken that off.
I was too high, and I'm using it to like
wipe the sweat off my face. And he said, oh,
did you uh dunk that or you know, get that
do rag wet in the in the cold water. And
it took me a second to realize, like, no, no,
(26:30):
I didn't. I'm like, no, this is just sweat. He's like, oh,
you didn't do it at the age station. I said, oh,
it's not there. There's no laide station and he screams,
what Yeah, so the aid station was not there at
the turnaround on the ten k. And if I'm gonna
if I'm gonna throw out one gripe and one complain
about this race, it's that that tanca at that age
station wasn't there. Who As you can tell, I'm still
(26:51):
I'm still very upset. Enough time has not passed and
I'm now okay with this. I'm not okay. It hurts.
It hurts right here. Uh and it hurt in my
you know, every part of me that needed hydration and coolness.
So actually got back of the park. There was the
eight station right there at the beginning of the park.
Got a drink there, and then they even had people
kind of walking out from the finish line with little
bottles of water that they were just kind of handed
(27:12):
to people, which that was very helpful as well. Absolutely
walked back more than the last mile. Absolutely I did.
Didn't even try and run at that point. My body
was shutting down. The sun kind of taking all the
blood shug around me. And on that last mile it's
a dead shot along a path, no shade, none in
that last mile, and the sun was just beating down
(27:34):
at that point. So I finished the race. I immediately
had to go sit down. Thought it was gonna hurl.
As I told the people there, I felt worse yesterday
finishing that race than I felt when I got pulled
for medical in Mississippi in December. That's how bad I
felt finishing that race. Dehydrated blood sugar had crashed overheated heat,
(27:55):
exhaustion setting in. It was ugly, and again not the
race's fault, not the race'st fault that it was just
so damn hot this weekend, but that's where it was.
So I was able to rest and replenished for a
little bit. And then huge shout out to listener Jason.
Jason finished his two hundredth race after having a heart attack.
(28:17):
All right, it's not just two hundred career races now,
it's two hundred career races after almost going deady by
from a heart attack, where he then decided, I've got
to get healthy in my life. I've got to do things,
and now I'm going to do all the things, two
hundred worth of the things. And so he finished his
two hundredth race. He also doing a tin k. Trust me,
you've seen Jason before if you've been in any of
the local races. He always has on the weighted vest
(28:40):
and he's usually wearing the military thing bucket hat. So
I know you've seen him. You know you've seen him.
And he completed his two hundred thre race, So huge congratulations.
We all met and had a celebratory mimosa after the
event at his car. The Mimosa tasted great. Problem was
it was freaking hot man, and I was like about
ready to go at that point. But it was great
(29:01):
to see him. It was great to be there for
his two hundred. It was great to have that mimosa.
And then I bid them a fond to do and
I headed home, so had to get in the car
and get cool. It was disgusting outside. So hearts for
Ronna McDonald house Charity again. I love y'all. I love
your event. I love what you do. We just got
a few aid session issues to figure out. Once that
is back right on par. You guys are shooting great,
(29:23):
no problems, no issues again. Will I be there next year?
One hundred percent. Do I hold any of this against
the race, Nil? I do not. Shit happens and you
cannot control the weather, all right, So overall it was
a two thumbs up weekend. Oh let's get let's get
the medal. They do great on their medals. It's not
gonna lie about that. There's the big ol' honk and
hearts for r MHC medal and the little Ronald McDonald's shoe.
(29:44):
He turns, see there you go. He spends he's a
little spinner guy. There we go and we'll do one work.
See cool, all right? So great metal they last few
years in a row. I've been super impressed with their medals.
They're really good. So that is it for our review weekend.
I'm just I want to throw this out real quick.
We're not going to harp on this very much. And
I know this is already going to be a long episode,
(30:06):
but whatever. The heat and humidity again, we're no freaking joke.
This was kind of record setting here in this area
this weekend. So I want to go through a few
facts just so you know. And at due point, if
seventy three to seventy four percent, which is what we had,
with humidity near seventy to eighty percent, your body cannot
effectively cool itself. Sweat does not evaporate well in humid air,
which means you're built in ac fails. And that is
(30:27):
one hundred percent true. Yes, you're sweating, but it's not
cooling your body. Core body temperature rises faster than usual,
heart rate spikes in effort, feels way harder at any pace. Okay,
So for our hearts, for our cardiovascular your body diverts
more blood to the skin to try and cool you
all right? That means less oxygen rich blood is available
(30:48):
for your working must soles, which is why you feel
so tired. The same pace that feels easy in cool
weather feels like redlining in ninety plus degree of real
feel tempts all true dehydration and electrolyte loss. This one
really got me. You sweat buckets and conditions like this,
and you're losing water and sodium at a much higher rate.
(31:09):
Even mild dehydration two to three percent of body weight
can cause fatigue, dizziness in slower reaction time. This is
why cramps and bonking happened earlier in hot races. Yes,
I bonked one hundred percent. I did. Mental and emotional toll.
Heat exhaustion isn't just physical. It affects your mindset. Higher
core temps mess with focus, motivation, and emotional control. So
(31:33):
if you're out there and you can't figure out why
you are less motivated or why you feel like you're
getting all emotional, like, why you feel like I'm gonna
cry about this, That's why it's this heat jacking with you.
Trust me. That's why bad race and the heat can
feel mentally crushing, like your body quit on you. A
lot of people were upset this weekend because our times
were so bad. I'm one of them. But it's not weakness,
(31:55):
it's physiological physiology. Physiology can hardly ever say those words.
Your brain is literally trying to keep you alive, all right,
So why you shouldn't beat yourself up? All right? Everyone
slows down an extreme heat, even elites who adjust their
pace goals. Running calculators suggest adding ten to twenty seconds
(32:15):
per mile for every five degrees above sixty all right,
Meaning a ninety nine degree day makes your pr effort
nearly impossible. Finishing under those conditions is accomplishment in and
of itself, all right. The smart move isn't pushing through
it at all costs. It's listening to your body and
respecting the weather, all right. So I just wanted to
(32:37):
throw some of that stuff out you again, knowing that
we're over on time. I don't want you to feel
bad about how this weekend win for you, because trust
me and went that way for me too. I have
not added my two finishing times to my spreadsheet, but
I can guarantee you on my ten K tab I'm
gonna be scrolling down a ways because they're in order
of time, and these are gonna be two of my worst,
like not maybe not the worst, but they're gonna two
(33:00):
of my worst times ever. And it's it's not my
physical preparation, even though I keep blaming myself for that,
and I do keep blaming myself for that. It's the weather.
The weather did this. It's not it I even after
hearts for Romcdninald House, I actually came home and I
got on the scale and like, how far off am
I from where I'm normally walking around? Because why did
(33:20):
I feel like I was like the world's fattish slub
out there who just couldn't go? And I get on
there and I'm right where I usually am, right where
I is normal. I mean, it's not where I want
to be, but it's normal. It's you know, it's in
the range. And so okay, well it's not that it
It seriously was the heat. It's like we keep looking
for any excuse to not blame the heat when the
blame is on the heat. So it was bad. It
(33:43):
was bad, But my times are gonna suck, but neither
It's right, ye'all, there are reasons, all right, this is
this was not just a mistake. This was not lack
of preparation. If you went out and you had a
bad time, and not everyone did. There are some people
who had some decent times this weekend, and good on you.
But if you're like me and your time sucked and
you're trying to beat yourself up about it, don't. It
was not your fault. It was not preparation. It was
(34:04):
the conditions, and the conditions absolutely do play a factor
in how things go for us out there. This past
weekend is case in point, all right, So that's gonna
do it for this one. This this weekend coming up,
I'll be at the Summer Sizzler fifteen k again, just
trying to get as many miles as I can. If
it is this level of hot again, and it's not
supposed to be, but if it is, I might seriously
(34:24):
reconsider doing that race, or am I drop down? Because
I now have learned that when we get that hot,
I cannot perform in it, and I just need to
start being a little smarter, more strategic about the races
I do in the extreme heat that we can get.
I don't think it's supposed to be. I think we
got a cool downcoming this week, I hope so. I
hope next weekend's much nicer so I can get those
nine plus miles in for a fifteen k. The Friday
(34:46):
is the two hundredth episode. I hope to join us
super fun. I might put it on Facebook just because
it's an anniversary episode. We'll see normally. I don't for
Second Wind episodes. I'm trying to drive you to the
podcast platforms or YouTube and even on Instagram because we
got to get our numbers up. We got rookie numbers.
I don't like it. It makes me mad, just like hot temperatures.
(35:07):
They make me unstable. Stuff like that. All Right, I'm
gonna quit rambling. That's it. Thank you all very much.
I always appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed the reviews.
I know reviews are kind of what we're getting known
for in the world, and I'm okay with that because
I love doing races and I like reviewing them. I
hope you enjoy it too. That's gonna do it. For
this week's episode of the Back of Back podcast, I'm
a host, Kyle Walker does my pleasure. As always, everyone,
have a safe week of training. Stay cool. Supposed to
cool off hooray, and we will see you next week.
Hello, where everyone, gritties and salentations, Welcome back to another
episode at the Back of the Back podcast. I'm your host,
Kyle Walker. Thank you so much for tuning in. It
is Monday here in mid August, and this has been
one of the hottest, nastiest August. This is I have
ever seen in my life. Boy, it is gross out there.
But hey, more on that later. If you're not paying
attention to the Friday episodes, this is the week. On Friday.
(00:33):
This week we will celebrate our two hundredth podcast episode.
So a big thank you to everyone who has ever listened,
who has ever contributed, who has done anything to keep
this thing going. I really do appreciate it. Last Friday's
episode we talked all about the new Chasing Rabbits run
club that's coming up this Thursday evening at Discourse Brewery.
I'm very excited about that. I have actually been going
(00:53):
a little too crazy purchasing things and to get this
thing launched. I'm actually super stoked about it. I think,
if nothing else, we're just going to have a good time.
This is not going to be some kind of very
serious running thing. This is just going to be fun.
There's no two ways about it. So I am super
(01:14):
excited for that, and I hope you will join me
this Thursday at Discourse Brewery ninety seventh the Metcalf, six
thirty pm. Three miles. That's the most we're ever gonna do.
And again, again, you will never be left behind because
I will always be the guy at the back of
the pack who's gonna make sure that everyone gets back
to the barn and can enjoy their adults beverage or
their glass of water before we're done for the evening.
(01:36):
So again, hope you'll join us. Going to be super
fun this week. What did we do? Well? I think
we know what we did. We did two back to
back ten ks, one of which I have talked about
for a very very very long time. The other one
I have definitely referenced quite a bit. So let's go
ahead and dive into our reviews of Saturday's REXI Run
ten k in Sunday's Hearts for Ronald McDonald House Charity
(01:57):
ten k. I'm gonna say this right off the bat,
right off the jump, no race is ever perfect, all right,
And so I'm going to give my feedback and I'm
going to give my race review. Both race directors know
that I am always honest and that I love them
both dearly, and that no race is perfect. So did
both of these races have a couple issues? Yes? They did,
(02:20):
so we're going to get into that now before we
go any further than that. Are any of those issues
enough to stop me from being there next year? No
they are not, because I will absolutely be at both
of these races next year, ready to run yet again.
So the first thing overarching story for both races this
entire weekend, of course, the weather. We were in scary hot,
(02:46):
dangerous weather patterns, issues, whatever's this weekend. This was a
new level of hot that we have not dealt with
much in this area this year. For whatever reason, Mother
Nature decided this was the weekend to really pour it on.
It was absolutely a contributing factor. So if you did
well this weekend, kudos to you. You you had the
(03:09):
brass monkeys to go out there and slap Mother Nature
directly upside her head. I did not have said brass monkeys.
Mother Nature won Kyle zero one hundred percent this past weekend.
I guess if you count both races, she is two
and zero on this mid August weekend. Because boy, hottie.
Did I get destroyed? Anyway? Saturday morning, REXI Run. All right,
(03:30):
we are up out of the hacienda and we are
heading off to Lawrence, Kansas to Broken Aarra Park, same
place they have always held this race, at least always
as far as I can remember. For the tenth anniversary
of REXI Run. REXI Run has gotten well, They've gotten
back to their numbers. I think they actually set a
new record this year. I'm pretty sure I heard them
say that. I think this was their biggest year yet.
(03:52):
I know that the day before the race they had
to stop taking not race day registrations, but they have
to stop taking pack pick up registrations because they officially
sold out. So what a wonderful problem to have. What
a great group of people to have. This problem happened to.
They had to start turning people away because there just
weren't gonna be enough shirts, metals and things for runners,
(04:14):
so they had to stop taking pre race registrations. Again.
Love to see it. So we head down, we get
our packets. I am at that park early. Okay, they
say the packet pickup starts at six thirty am, because
the race starts at seven thirty am. I was pulling
in at six thirty am. Already the first church parking
lot was already full. There were tons of people parked
(04:35):
over at the park, and there were people walking down
from the school that has other parking as well, so
I was not the only person who was going to
be early. This place was hopping before the sun even
got up in the sky. And again you love to
see it. So I get parked behind the second church,
my youngest back of the packet and I we head
on over. We get our packet, we get our nice
little shirts that you can see I'm wearing right now.
(04:56):
Let's see my microphones in the way. Rexy Running twenty
twenty five, the big old in on it again, ten
year anniversary, Super great. Get our stuff, throw back in
the car, and then we are just kind of meandering
around until it's time for the race to start. We
find runners to talk to, we find our run fan.
You know, people are taking pictures, things are being discussed.
It's blah blah blah. We're talking. We're standing in one
(05:19):
place talking and already everyone is just dripping with sweat.
It was such a disgusting morning. Let me tell you
what we had. Okay, here was the morning of REXI run.
I even wrote it down. On Saturday, we had a
real feel. Okay, that's real feel, of course, is the
heat and humidity all you know, mix together. Here's what
it really feels like outside. Feels nasty, is what it
(05:40):
feels like. Saturday. We had a real feel of ninety
nine degrees humidity at sixty five percent in a due
point of seventy three. Again, we're gonna be back to
that in a little bit, but that's what we were
dealing with. So everyone is already dripping with sweat. There
are people who went out to get pre miles before
the race. There are people who got post miles after
(06:00):
the race, as everyone is in their training for their
fall marathons. And to you people, a you're crazy, be
good job out of you. I could not fathom trying
to do more miles on Saturday in that weather than
I was going to get at that ten k. My
six point two was going to be good enough for me.
Should be, no, is it? Yes? Anyway, the race begins,
(06:22):
the ten carires do get a head start, which is nice.
The only thing that I don't particularly care for in
personal preference me, this is not something wrong with the race.
But you know, they've got their timeframe, they've got things
that got to be reached. They've got roads that got
to get open, and courses they got to get open
back up. You don't have all day. But it's really
only about a five minute head start for the ten cares,
(06:43):
So before you know it, the faster five cares are
blown right past you as you're going down. It's not
a narrow sidewalk, but it's a very standard sized sidewalk
going down into the park. I believe it is close
to the wetlands either which way. The ten cares do
not get the course to themselves for very long and
this year, because they had two of the longer distances,
(07:04):
the ten cares in the eight kres ran together to
start the race. So we started at seven thirty. The
five k started like seven thirty five. And of course,
as a slower ten care, all I'm doing is running
along hoping that someone I know doesn't pass me. Who's
running the five k, And here I'm slowly running the
ten I don't think it happened. I know it didn't happen.
I don't think it happened Saturday. It certainly happened on Sunday. Anyway,
(07:26):
we'll get back to that. So the ten carriers off
the same course as we're used to. So down the
hill we go. Once we wrap around the park, down
the hill towards the wetlands, make the right turn on
the path. You kind of have a very long, steady,
not particularly steep, but a steady uphill within that first
mile of the race. So already again you're dripping with goo.
(07:46):
You're going up a hill, You're trying to pace yourself right,
and the weather's just fight me all the way. And
the problem is once you make this right turn, kind
of after you're done with the start of the race,
you're still with you you first mile, the shade it
goes bye bye. It is gone. It is done. You
are out in the middle of the wetlands. And it's
called the wetlands. It's not called the tree lands, it's
(08:08):
not called the shade lands. It's just the wetlands where
there's just a lot of kind of low lying vegetation
amongst the path, no trees. So anyway, you get up
to the top of that hill, you are hot. You
make the left, you are hot. You go down the
hill to the first aid station. Guess what you are?
You are hot now. The first critique of REXI run.
(08:29):
And you guys know this. You even told me this.
I'm aware of this. Everyone was aware of this. Ran
out of water at the first aid station. No no, no, no, no,
can no run out of waters on days like this.
But trust me, you're not the only people to have
this problem. In hinting wink. So there is the one
problem with Rexy Run. They did have aid station issues.
Those happen. I can almost guarantee you they will not
(08:50):
happen again next year, because I know Christina and she
is going to make sure there's so much water there
that they could flood the wetlands if they so desired.
Either which way, you're past the first aid station and
then you get onto the kind of the crushed limestone trail.
I swear this used to be like full blown gravel.
Now it was more just the crushed limestone and dirt.
So I don't know if they've redone things or my
memory is getting bad. Could be either, could be both,
(09:10):
could be neither, whatever, But either way, you're on that,
You're you're wheeling back around the wetlands. You meet up
with the first path that you started on, and then
the five carriers make their left head back to the
park and finish up eight carres and ten cares continue
on to what did they call it, to the Wall
of Death. And so I'm just trying to figure out
why are people talking about the wall so much? Okay,
(09:30):
now I get it. So you go up this hill
and there is one of those I guess it's supposed
to be kind of a noise canceling wall next to
the highway, next to K ten and so it's so
that the traffic noise does not just kind of flood
right over. So it's one of those big, kind of
reddish walls, I don't know, eight ten feet high something
like that. It's a big mamajama. What that big mamajamma does, though,
(09:53):
is reflect sunshine and hold on to the heat. And
so as you're on the trail next to the Wall
of Death, you are feeling the heat just radiating off
of it. And again, when you're already near one hundred
degrees radiating heat not really what you want to feel.
And you go down. You go all the way down
the Wall of Death from where you pick it up
to where it ends and that's where the eight K
(10:16):
turnaround is is at the end of the wall. Ten
kre's got to continue on. You get a nice downhill
to whatever that main road is. You take a left,
you go under the overpass, you take another left, you
go up this little frontage road with nothing on it.
You turn around and there's an eight station there at
the turnaround, which was nice. They had I think it
was for a cross country team. They had a little
shade of ten for all of them. They're handing out water.
(10:37):
They with three. That's kind of technically your ten k
turnaround at that point. You turn around there and then
you go back the way you came. Now that really
nice downhill that you had at the end of the
wall is now an uphill to the beginning of the wall,
and then you're next to the wall of death. Yet again,
it was nice. There were some cheerleaders out there. There
was high schoolers. I don't know what their club was,
(10:57):
if it was a cross country team, if it was
a track team, who was just students getting together, whatever,
but they were cheering people on. They were very excited,
very exuberant in their cheering. So that is always a
really cool thing to see and here it is helpful,
especially at this point. I wasn't riding the struggle bus.
I was driving that son of a gun. Everyone could
just get on board because I put the little Captain's
hat on and the struggle bus was under my control
(11:20):
at that point. Actually, nothing was under my control at
that point in time. So we're back along the wall
of death. No fun at all. Hot, hot, hot, And
again there's nothing that either of these races this week
it could do about the heat. So don't ever hear
that out of my voice or my tone or whatever
I'm saying. That heat was uncontrollable. Clearly mother nature wins,
(11:41):
and it was just awful. So at this point, at
about three miles in, about halfway down with my ten k,
I was kind of mentally done. It was hot. It
was simply survive in advance for me, I was feeling
every bit of that heat. I thought I had been
training well enough in the heat to be ackling made it.
You cannot acclimate to this kind of nasty because we
(12:05):
don't get enough of this kind of nasty in this
area to be acclimated. Now I know that Lisa down
in Huntsville, Alabama is laughing at us like you big
Midwestern whimps. And I know that running up that Hillary
down in the southern part of Texas is saying you
clowns are a bunch of princesses, or whatever she might say.
(12:26):
I saw on her princess phone yesterday doing a reel,
so it's in my head. I get it. You guys
live in much hotter areas, but you get the much
hotter much more often than we do. We don't get
this level of nasty constantly up here, and so when
we do, it really sucked. All right, it wasn't hot.
It was hot, and I didn't like it, So don't
(12:46):
make fun of me, your big mean influencers you. So anyway,
after the Wall of Death, we finally get to our
right turn that takes us back towards the finishing park.
Make the right turn. But but, and Christine even said
this on the podcast when she came on last week,
so this was not a surprise. But as we're coming
up the path, you see the right turn into the park,
you see the finish line, You see the food trucks,
(13:08):
you see the people celebrating, you see the inflatables, you
see the cost players, you see people drinking water and
holding metals who are not nearly as tired as you
currently are, because maybe they do the five k or
maybe they're much better ten kre You see all this,
but you must continue straight. You do not get to
make the right turn into the park. You get to
make a left turn into the park later because now
you have the out and back up to the school
(13:30):
that you have to do to get your last little
bit of mileage. So you pass the entrance to the park,
you go up the hill. This is where I came
to a completely dead stop and talk to race director Christina,
who was standing there on the side of the road.
We talked for like two minutes, so that was fine
with me because I was having a horrible ten k
as it was continued on up the hill to the school,
through the school parking lot, and yes, I'm on a sidewalk,
(13:51):
I'm in a school parking lot. You think there's a
lot of shade in either of those places. No, we
get to the end of the parking lot, we turn
around and we come back. Now it's back down the hill.
Now it's a left endto the park. But when you
go into the park, it is not a direct shot
to the finish line. No, No, you go into the park,
you make a left down this offshoot parking lot, you
go all the way round the off shoot parking lot,
then you come back out. Then you go down the
(14:13):
circle and around the path, and then you finally get
to the finish line. Good lord, when you are amazingly hot, uncomfortable,
and unhappy, all the extra that you have to do
in the park is just enough to spin you into
the next dimension of pissed off again. Not the race's fault.
Do you want your miles? Do you want your miles?
If you want your miles, you gotta do the course
(14:34):
that they drew up that gets you your miles. That's
what you have to do. You don't get a choice.
Even though I just wanted to directly be line to
the finish line, and I wanted to just sit there
and cry like a little girl. Man, it was hot,
good lord, anyway, it was nice. I finished up the
last bit of the race, all that stuff I did
with in the park, I walked with Penny, came across
(14:54):
a great pacer, Penny, and so we just walked it together,
shooting the breeze to finish up, because at that point
neither of us gave two shreds of a shit pardon
my French kids about that race and about finishing. It
was hot, so anyway, finish got the metal. I needed
to sit down for a couple of minutes because I
was pretty lightheaded, pretty low on the old blood sugar.
(15:16):
This heat takes it out of you, man, It really does,
like kind of next level takes it out of you.
Talk to folks for a while. Got the metal, which
let's show you right now. Let's show you right now.
All right, so here we go the tenth anniversary Rexy
Run Metal. All you see is glare. I'm trying to
get no glare. There you go there it is Rexy
Run ten. And then if you look behind me here
(15:38):
see it's gonna link up right here with the other one.
So then we're gonna have our three piece medal. Right
there see it Boom, that's gonna be pretty. Now. I
gotta get a safety pin on it, and I gotta
get it hung correctly, because oh it does stay. Hey
if that falls off, you guys can laugh either way's right.
So we finished up. We did go my daughter and
I did go visit some of the food trucks to
(15:58):
try and support the venders who came out the children's
race looked like they had a ball, looks like they
had a blast. There were bouncy houses there, there was
the food you could buy. I completely screwed up and
I did not put in any tickets for the quilt.
So whoever won the quilt enjoy I know that most years,
if you didn't know this, if you ever go and
(16:19):
you put in the raffle for the quilt, normally, when
you win the quilt you just donate it to that
year's honorary Rexy Amelia. I hope that that's what happened.
I don't know, can't say for certain, but I hope
it is. And so we finally got out of there.
It was again it was so damn hot, just so
damn hot for me. For the rest of that day,
it was really just rest and recover because we had
(16:40):
a ten k the next morning. So there was not
a whole bunch of extracurricular activities show we say following
the race, but REXI run. We did have one aid
station problem, and I know that there are probably a
few other things. Some people did not like that the
school out and back was put at the end and
not the beginning. Okay, that's a preference. I get it.
If you didn't like it, totally understand. And then I
(17:01):
guess there was some issues with Age Division awards not
having enough to cover everything, or they were out or
whatever the situation was. I am sure Christina is more
than aware of it, more than on it. She will
get awards to those who need to get awards, no problem.
I have no doubt about this. I do understand the
frustration of not getting a day of Okay, I get
that too. So again, what I can say with almost
(17:23):
one hundred percent certainty is this year's problems will not
be repeated next year because this is a race that
does learn from their mistakes. They know if there is
an issue, we will solve. It doesn't mean there's not
going to be twenty other issues next year that are
kind of unforeseen. I get that that happens. So again,
we take no marks off REXI Run. There's always room
(17:44):
for improvement. No race is perfect, no race ever except
for the one that I put on of course that
was perfect in every way. Yeah right, but REXI Run.
Love you guys. Two thumbs up for this year's event.
The tenth anniversary was amazing. Everyone goes to anniversary years.
Next year's going to be year eleven. Let's not fall
off too much. Okay, kids, let's all make sure we're
still there. If you went and ran that race this year,
(18:05):
you know that's a good race. You know that it's
a great cause and that they really try and do
it up for an entire family day there at the
park that morning. So please consider supporting them again next year.
I think they're always the third Saturday in August, so
just go ahead and put it on your calendar. Cool. Cool,
all right. So the next morning we're going completely the
(18:25):
opposite direction from Lawrence, Kansas, and we were heading up
to Parkville, Missouri for the Hearts for Ronald McDonald House
charity again, a race we've done before. Just did it
last year. My boy, Jeff race director, loved this guy.
Was the race perfect? No, it was not. What was
the problem again? Aid Station First, aid Station also runs
(18:48):
out of water. Here's what happens, folks abnormally hot, crazy hot,
crazy hot temperatures, and they also have to shut down
registration as they are so and they are having their
biggest run ever, so you have more people than you
budgeted for. You have higher temperatures than you were prepared for.
More water is going to get drunk on the course.
(19:09):
So if you run out of cups, you run out
of water in the cooler, or whatever your situation is,
you're screwed at that point. But people need more. People
need that stuff because they need the water in so
damn high. So I know that there were people who
were using a drinking fountain that was next to the
age station. They themselves, the aid station, were trying to
fill things up at the drinking fountain and get them
(19:29):
back to the table. So you know, you get your
rusty tetanus water. I get it. And credit to them
for at least trying. They were trying to do their
best to help all the runners even after they were
out of supplies. So huge credit to that aid station. Again,
I didn't experience it. There were still some cups left
when I went by. I guess it got a little
worse after the fact. Another race where the ten k
(19:50):
starts before the five k so as ten kres were
perfectly supported. The five kres, especially towards the middle and end,
were the ones that did not get their water. Okay,
so let's let's that's that's the complaint though, and we'll
get to the other. I have one other complaint and
we're gonna get to that too. And again, complaint is
a strong word. This is feedback, and I know that
these will not be repeated again, so I'm not even
(20:12):
worried about it. We all survived, barely, but we all survived.
So we get up. We had to Parkville, Missouri, no
one with me, just me, myself and I. That morning,
I actually felt fine. I really wanted to go out
there and have a good race. English Landing Park is
not a difficult course. It is very flat. It's more
shaded than REXI run, but there are still periods where
(20:33):
there is not a lot of shade, especially if you're
doing the ten k. And so we get there, we
see everyone get the stuff. They have a food truck
out there. They've got a couple of vendors. The Saint
Joseph Marathon was there with the table. There was another
five k president and I don't recall them. Their name
right now is a breast cancer awareness one. Ah, that's
gonna make me feel like cramp. Of course. The tent
(20:53):
for Ronald McDonald House Charities was there, and then they
had tons of coolers around the area with waters or
sodas or whatever that people could get to because it
was so stinking hot. So we start the race seven thirty.
The ten Cares begin at seven thirty. The five Carris
we're gonna start at seven forty five. Away we go.
This is a big loop for the first I mean
(21:15):
it's pretty much a big loop for the first five k.
Once the five carriers turn off, it's an out and
back for the ten Cares to get kind of the
second half of that race. So we began, we're going around.
My first screw up of the day, and again, this
is mine. This is I can't blame this on anyone else.
I had my garment ready and when I crossed the
start line, I hit the button. Apparently it did not
(21:36):
read that I hit the button, So I went almost
the first half mile without my garment going And like,
is that a big deal in the grand scheme of things? No?
Is it annoying though that when you start it later.
Now you're way off from the mile markers. And credit
to Art's Ronald McDonald Ha's charity, they had mile markers
this year, I guess their first time ever. They had
some made so there's a mile markers, but I'm not
(21:56):
beeping anywhere close to them because I'm now like off
by almost a half. So everything was screwed up, and
now my garment has me measured short. So I didn't
really get credit for that ten k, not that I
ever really want to think about my time on that
ten k again, but that was just like, immediately out
of the gate, I'm already screwed up, and I'm already thinking,
oh no, this is terrible, but I continue on. I'm
(22:17):
moving out a decent clip. Probably went out too fast
for the temperature. It didn't feel like it. It felt
like my normal gait. But in this kind of weather,
you can't really go out on your normal gate, or
you shouldn't, or some of us just physically can't keep
that going for very long. First mile was good, got
to that first aid station, went through that, got to
the second mile. At this point, I'm just already pouring sweat. Okay,
(22:39):
So let's go to our Sunday temperature. Sunday we had
a real feel of ninety six degrees a humidity at
seventy ninety percent any duo point to seventy four. So
even though Saturday was hotter. It was drier Sunday, not
quite as hot three degree difference, but much higher humidity
(23:00):
higher due point. The Sunday race was actually worse temperature wise,
like real feel outside, all of it. Everything was worse
on Sunday. It was nasty. So by mile two I'm
already struggling. All right, legs are a little tired from
the running the day before. I am just depleted. Maybe
after REXI run, I did not rehydrate well enough. Actually,
(23:21):
there's no maybe about it. I'll guarantee you I didn't well,
I didn't do anything stupid. I didn't do anything beneficial.
Another big problem. So at mile two, already hitting the
struggle bus. Dan has already flown around me, and here
come the five Cares, the five cares that started after
me are now starting to pass me at mile marker two.
And then some people I know, and again they are
(23:41):
fast runners, and they're doing the five k and they're
hauling ass and they only have to take one trip
when they haul ass, where I have to take two.
They start going around me, and I see the verks
go past me, and I see a man to go
past me, and I'm thinking, well shit, I am really
dragging ass here, so I tried to pick it up
a little bit. I go around the horn, I go
up and over the bridge. Everyone knows that walling bridge.
And I go down and I'm really just trying to
(24:02):
run it out to where the five carriers have to
make their left turn to go finish, and I continue
straight because if I get past that point, they can't
pass me anymore. And so I do finally get past
that point with only I think three maybe four people
I know who passed me and saw, oh, Kyle sucks today,
you weren't wrong, and out we go. We go out,
We leave the realm of the park and we go
(24:23):
on to just the sidewalk that goes around the businesses. Okay,
we had to go around the businesses and up the trail.
And then when we get to the parking lot is
the ten k turnaround. You've heard me mention the ten
k turnaround at the Hearts for Ronald McDonald House Charity
ten k before because it's my most favoritiest aid station ever,
because Jeff always had the coldest water in all of
(24:46):
human history at this aid station. I craved it. I
looked forward to it like it almost had me salivating, thinking, Oh,
I'm gonna get a drink of that cool, cool water.
The AID station wasn't there. It was nothing but cones
and a U turn sign. There was no AID station
(25:06):
outside the realm of the park when you got on
that path and got to that parking lot. There was
never an AID station outside of park property. I am
sure this was a strategic decision made or someone just
didn't show up. I don't know what it was, but
(25:26):
if I have one beef, one gripe, because again, the
AIDE station that ran out of water didn't affect me,
and that sounds very selfish. But again I can't speak
too much on it because I only heard about the situation.
I didn't experience it. What I did experience was the
absolute heartbreak and crushing of my hopes and dreams when
I got to that AID station that wasn't there, that
(25:48):
was supposed to have the crystal cool water that was
at the ten K turnaround where I was dying of thirst.
We were all hot, it was deadly hot outside and
it wasn't there. And so I turn around and I'm
going back down there, down the hill and around the corner,
and I'm heading back and I'm just I mean, I'm
walking basically at this point, I'm pretty sure I walked
the last two miles of this race. I just that
(26:09):
that crushed me. And to the point I come across
Jose come in the other direction and uh, I'm holding
my do rag. You guys know I normally wear like
a rag on my head. Well, i'd already taken that off.
I was too high, and I'm using it to like
wipe the sweat off my face. And he said, oh,
did you uh dunk that or you know, get that
do rag wet in the in the cold water. And
it took me a second to realize, like, no, no,
(26:30):
I didn't. I'm like, no, this is just sweat. He's like, oh,
you didn't do it at the age station. I said, oh,
it's not there. There's no laide station and he screams,
what Yeah, so the aid station was not there at
the turnaround on the ten k. And if I'm gonna
if I'm gonna throw out one gripe and one complain
about this race, it's that that tanca at that age
station wasn't there. Who As you can tell, I'm still
(26:51):
I'm still very upset. Enough time has not passed and
I'm now okay with this. I'm not okay. It hurts.
It hurts right here. Uh and it hurt in my
you know, every part of me that needed hydration and coolness.
So actually got back of the park. There was the
eight station right there at the beginning of the park.
Got a drink there, and then they even had people
kind of walking out from the finish line with little
bottles of water that they were just kind of handed
(27:12):
to people, which that was very helpful as well. Absolutely
walked back more than the last mile. Absolutely I did.
Didn't even try and run at that point. My body
was shutting down. The sun kind of taking all the
blood shug around me. And on that last mile it's
a dead shot along a path, no shade, none in
that last mile, and the sun was just beating down
(27:34):
at that point. So I finished the race. I immediately
had to go sit down. Thought it was gonna hurl.
As I told the people there, I felt worse yesterday
finishing that race than I felt when I got pulled
for medical in Mississippi in December. That's how bad I
felt finishing that race. Dehydrated blood sugar had crashed overheated heat,
(27:55):
exhaustion setting in. It was ugly, and again not the
race's fault, not the race'st fault that it was just
so damn hot this weekend, but that's where it was.
So I was able to rest and replenished for a
little bit. And then huge shout out to listener Jason.
Jason finished his two hundredth race after having a heart attack.
(28:17):
All right, it's not just two hundred career races now,
it's two hundred career races after almost going deady by
from a heart attack, where he then decided, I've got
to get healthy in my life. I've got to do things,
and now I'm going to do all the things, two
hundred worth of the things. And so he finished his
two hundredth race. He also doing a tin k. Trust me,
you've seen Jason before if you've been in any of
the local races. He always has on the weighted vest
(28:40):
and he's usually wearing the military thing bucket hat. So
I know you've seen him. You know you've seen him.
And he completed his two hundred thre race, So huge congratulations.
We all met and had a celebratory mimosa after the
event at his car. The Mimosa tasted great. Problem was
it was freaking hot man, and I was like about
ready to go at that point. But it was great
(29:01):
to see him. It was great to be there for
his two hundred. It was great to have that mimosa.
And then I bid them a fond to do and
I headed home, so had to get in the car
and get cool. It was disgusting outside. So hearts for
Ronna McDonald house Charity again. I love y'all. I love
your event. I love what you do. We just got
a few aid session issues to figure out. Once that
is back right on par. You guys are shooting great,
(29:23):
no problems, no issues again. Will I be there next year?
One hundred percent. Do I hold any of this against
the race, Nil? I do not. Shit happens and you
cannot control the weather, all right, So overall it was
a two thumbs up weekend. Oh let's get let's get
the medal. They do great on their medals. It's not
gonna lie about that. There's the big ol' honk and
hearts for r MHC medal and the little Ronald McDonald's shoe.
(29:44):
He turns, see there you go. He spends he's a
little spinner guy. There we go and we'll do one work.
See cool, all right? So great metal they last few
years in a row. I've been super impressed with their medals.
They're really good. So that is it for our review weekend.
I'm just I want to throw this out real quick.
We're not going to harp on this very much. And
I know this is already going to be a long episode,
(30:06):
but whatever. The heat and humidity again, we're no freaking joke.
This was kind of record setting here in this area
this weekend. So I want to go through a few
facts just so you know. And at due point, if
seventy three to seventy four percent, which is what we had,
with humidity near seventy to eighty percent, your body cannot
effectively cool itself. Sweat does not evaporate well in humid air,
which means you're built in ac fails. And that is
(30:27):
one hundred percent true. Yes, you're sweating, but it's not
cooling your body. Core body temperature rises faster than usual,
heart rate spikes in effort, feels way harder at any pace. Okay,
So for our hearts, for our cardiovascular your body diverts
more blood to the skin to try and cool you
all right? That means less oxygen rich blood is available
(30:48):
for your working must soles, which is why you feel
so tired. The same pace that feels easy in cool
weather feels like redlining in ninety plus degree of real
feel tempts all true dehydration and electrolyte loss. This one
really got me. You sweat buckets and conditions like this,
and you're losing water and sodium at a much higher rate.
(31:09):
Even mild dehydration two to three percent of body weight
can cause fatigue, dizziness in slower reaction time. This is
why cramps and bonking happened earlier in hot races. Yes,
I bonked one hundred percent. I did. Mental and emotional toll.
Heat exhaustion isn't just physical. It affects your mindset. Higher
core temps mess with focus, motivation, and emotional control. So
(31:33):
if you're out there and you can't figure out why
you are less motivated or why you feel like you're
getting all emotional, like, why you feel like I'm gonna
cry about this, That's why it's this heat jacking with you.
Trust me. That's why bad race and the heat can
feel mentally crushing, like your body quit on you. A
lot of people were upset this weekend because our times
were so bad. I'm one of them. But it's not weakness,
(31:55):
it's physiological physiology. Physiology can hardly ever say those words.
Your brain is literally trying to keep you alive, all right,
So why you shouldn't beat yourself up? All right? Everyone
slows down an extreme heat, even elites who adjust their
pace goals. Running calculators suggest adding ten to twenty seconds
(32:15):
per mile for every five degrees above sixty all right,
Meaning a ninety nine degree day makes your pr effort
nearly impossible. Finishing under those conditions is accomplishment in and
of itself, all right. The smart move isn't pushing through
it at all costs. It's listening to your body and
respecting the weather, all right. So I just wanted to
(32:37):
throw some of that stuff out you again, knowing that
we're over on time. I don't want you to feel
bad about how this weekend win for you, because trust
me and went that way for me too. I have
not added my two finishing times to my spreadsheet, but
I can guarantee you on my ten K tab I'm
gonna be scrolling down a ways because they're in order
of time, and these are gonna be two of my worst,
like not maybe not the worst, but they're gonna two
(33:00):
of my worst times ever. And it's it's not my
physical preparation, even though I keep blaming myself for that,
and I do keep blaming myself for that. It's the weather.
The weather did this. It's not it I even after
hearts for Romcdninald House, I actually came home and I
got on the scale and like, how far off am
I from where I'm normally walking around? Because why did
(33:20):
I feel like I was like the world's fattish slub
out there who just couldn't go? And I get on
there and I'm right where I usually am, right where
I is normal. I mean, it's not where I want
to be, but it's normal. It's you know, it's in
the range. And so okay, well it's not that it
It seriously was the heat. It's like we keep looking
for any excuse to not blame the heat when the
blame is on the heat. So it was bad. It
(33:43):
was bad, But my times are gonna suck, but neither
It's right, ye'all, there are reasons, all right, this is
this was not just a mistake. This was not lack
of preparation. If you went out and you had a
bad time, and not everyone did. There are some people
who had some decent times this weekend, and good on you.
But if you're like me and your time sucked and
you're trying to beat yourself up about it, don't. It
was not your fault. It was not preparation. It was
(34:04):
the conditions, and the conditions absolutely do play a factor
in how things go for us out there. This past
weekend is case in point, all right, So that's gonna
do it for this one. This this weekend coming up,
I'll be at the Summer Sizzler fifteen k again, just
trying to get as many miles as I can. If
it is this level of hot again, and it's not
supposed to be, but if it is, I might seriously
(34:24):
reconsider doing that race, or am I drop down? Because
I now have learned that when we get that hot,
I cannot perform in it, and I just need to
start being a little smarter, more strategic about the races
I do in the extreme heat that we can get.
I don't think it's supposed to be. I think we
got a cool downcoming this week, I hope so. I
hope next weekend's much nicer so I can get those
nine plus miles in for a fifteen k. The Friday
(34:46):
is the two hundredth episode. I hope to join us
super fun. I might put it on Facebook just because
it's an anniversary episode. We'll see normally. I don't for
Second Wind episodes. I'm trying to drive you to the
podcast platforms or YouTube and even on Instagram because we
got to get our numbers up. We got rookie numbers.
I don't like it. It makes me mad, just like hot temperatures.
(35:07):
They make me unstable. Stuff like that. All Right, I'm
gonna quit rambling. That's it. Thank you all very much.
I always appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed the reviews.
I know reviews are kind of what we're getting known
for in the world, and I'm okay with that because
I love doing races and I like reviewing them. I
hope you enjoy it too. That's gonna do it. For
this week's episode of the Back of Back podcast, I'm
a host, Kyle Walker does my pleasure. As always, everyone,
have a safe week of training. Stay cool. Supposed to
cool off hooray, and we will see you next week.
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