This morning I participated in the Japan Day “Japan Run” 4-Miler in Central Park. It was a humid morning, a little more than a half-day after completing my long run, and while I didn’t beat last year’s time of 27:47 or the time I got in a 4-mile race earlier this year (27:50), I got pretty darn close. Take a look at my unofficial results per Garmin:
Actually, these results almost identically match the official results. Officially, I ran this race in 27:56, meaning I was doing 6:59s. That’s a second slower of a pace from the R Baby 4-Miler I did about a month ago, but considering that that was in 44-degree weather and today’s run was in humid, 75-degree weather, I think I performed a bit better in today’s race. I even got a final sprint in, which sounded as if it wowed the crowd at the finish line. My time is not all that impressive, though, and I can’t wait until I start posting better times.
Before the run I had a green tea to see if it would have an impact on my run. (I didn’t notice anything.) Going into the run, the medial side of my right lower leg was sensitive again! However, it did not bother me throughout the run. I wondered if adrenaline made it go away.
We started on the 102nd St. Transverse, and I got pretty good speed in that first mile (6:36). For the mile featuring Cat Hill (this race’s biggest hill), I posted a 7:35, but it seemed a bit slower than that. When I hit the 3 Miles marker, I did a quick calculation and realized I had to hustle to beat my time: I had to run the final mile in about 7 minutes or less. Fortunately it was mostly downhill, but given some of my recent history on that portion of Central Park, I didn’t let that fact let me get lazy. I tried to keep my pace up and it was hard, but that final sprint as I rounded onto the Transverse again was wonderful. I hit my Garmin button a few seconds after finishing but it seemed to be the perfect time to do so because it was apparently at the moment of my official time.
I hope to have some photographs up soon!