Exceeded My Goals

Unofficial Race Results per Garmin:

This morning I did the R Baby Mother’s Day 4-Mile Run in Central Park. It was a gorgeous, if surprisingly cold and windy, race. At the start, it was 44 degrees! While winds were recorded at 9 mph, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were gusts above 20 mph.

For this race (my first race of the year), I set my goal as running sub-7:10s. I based this goal on my pace last year for this race, when I did the 4-miler in 7:10s (28:42 net). I haven’t been able to achieve that pace regularly yet this year, so I wasn’t certain I could accomplish it. My secondary goal was to run this race in under 28:00, which would have meant a 7:00 pace. In running it in 6:58s for a 27:50 finish, I exceded both of my goals!

In order to accomplish these goals, during the race I cut a number of tangents, but more importantly I had to push myself. In the first mile I did a nice amount of passing (to my surprise), but inside mile 2 I started getting passed. I found this a little confusing because I thought I had more pace than the bodies of the other runners suggested, but I did wonder if they were burning themselves out and I would eventually pass them with my steadier approach.

It’s hard to say if that happened. Inside mile 3, this hilliest part of the race, I told myself to push myself in it and I did. I pushed just a bit on the hills, doing some passing but not really reaching a blonde who had passed me earlier with a great frame and cute running legs. I immediately dubbed her in my mind “The Gold Standard.” Later, I dubbed her “My Blonde Ambition.” She was a person I imagined other guys between her and me were cursing, or envying, or wishing were theirs because she demonstrated a solid pace and probably finished around 27:30. I never reached The Gold Standard; I just couldn’t get my pace up that much.

Pushing on the hills seemed to pay off in seconds. My body supported the push to a degree and relative to the other runners, I did well. When it came to the turn for the finish, I could tell I didn’t have as much juice to really all-out sprint. I reserved my finishing sprint to pass a couple women who had newly passed me in the last bit. I was also trying to figure out the balance of pressing my Garmin’s stop button while also giving a photogenic finish. I opted for stopping Garmin a few seconds after the finish line as what mattered more to me was the official time. I was a little confused by the finish line, which had a time-track about 30 feet in front of the actual finish line, then the usual two time-tracks at the finish–I had thought the first track was the finish.

ArginMax, quercetin, and a Strawberry-Banana PowerGel powered this race, not to mention another pasta dinner the night before. Afterwards, I got my bagel and water, stretched, then went to the gym for a quick set of abs, back, and arms. This race was nice and just the right amount of challenge for me at this place in my training. It’s interesting to note that I seem to be adapting to training quickly. But I’m very cautious about injury right now and don’t want it to happen in light of 3 important races ahead.

Photos to come in about a week. Check the Photos page on the right to see them.