Today I ran the Continental Airlines 5th Avenue Mile. I didn’t bring my Garmin to track my race, but it goes from E. 80th to E. 60th along 5th Avenue. Last year I ran it in a surprising 5:19. This year, I set my goal as 5:45 and I ran it in 5:40. I was a little disappointed and sad with my results, but come to think of it, given that I’d done 18.35 miles a little more than 12 hours before, I didn’t do that bad. Here’s video from the event:
The temperature was about 66 degrees and pretty favorable for a run, though at this temperature, speed starts to diminish a bit. I started about 20 feet from the start line, so I didn’t have as good of a position as last year. When the gun went off, I had to fight a little to get some space, and I nearly hit a guy who was clutching his hamstring right after his start, notably an acute injury he unfortunately experienced. (He actually finished, though!) While I was steady up the hill from 75th St. to 71st St., I could tell that my body just wasn’t in a position to output superspeed. Things seemed in “soft motion.” I hit the 1/4-mile mark around 1:21 and the 1/2-mile mark around 2:30 (I think just after mounting the hill). That it took me 2:30 to do a half-mile disappointed me a bit because I was on pace for a 6:00, but I quickly relieved and focused when I realized it was downhill for a bit so I could pick up some time. This year I was able to push myself better in the long distance to the finish (which you can see for a while), and I knew I came in under 5:45 given a start a few seconds after the gun. Elizabeth came to watch and I heard her say my name just before I finished.
I had hoped for most of the year to break 5:00 in this race. It just wasn’t happening. The events in my life this year have divided up my head so that I haven’t been as energized and focused on running. My age grade percentage was 66.66% compared to last year’s 70.5%, which isn’t bad but I’m still a bit off. I have a little more than a month until the NYC Marathon.
While my body felt alright this morning after having ice bathed last night and slept in compression socks, I did wrestle with a bit of a cold (sniffles with a little bit of a sore throat), contracted Friday during a long day on set fueled a bit by caffeine I haven’t had much of recently. I’m still a bit sniffly at dinnertime Sunday, and I can tell it’s sapping my energy a bit despite an afternoon nap.
But there you have it.