This morning I ran Boomer’s Cystic Fibrosis Run to Breathe 10K in Central Park. I ran it in 42:51 (6:55s), which is a race PR for me for this distance.
(And I don’t know how I did it!)
Here are my unofficial Garmin stats. I turned off my Garmin after the finish line.
There were some wonderful components going into today’s race. First, it was extraordinarily cool–65 degrees at the start, with the 87% humidity unnoticeable. Second, I was grumpy and tired and not in a good mood to race, which historically tends to say I’ll do well. I was also rested for two days after a 16-mile run in 98-degree heat at the worst, which may have toughened me up a bit.
I started out this race with pretty low expectations. I actually thought I might just jog this one and have fun with it. However, I ended up basically at the start line and my cardiovascular fitness seemed pretty good in the first mile, so I thought that maybe I should push myself. I also tried out a new strategy I’ve figured out on my long fun: to actually get excited when my brain presents me with issues about my run. I realized that I should get excited because when I’m sedentary, I’m not presented with running challenges, so running gets me to different mental places and challenges me to get by them.
My first mile was done in 6:32, and I only lost about a second in my second mile. In my third mile, which included Harlem Hill, I told myself to slow down around the pool area so that I could build up some energy to climb Harlem Hill a bit faster. It kinda worked: I slowed myself down and a lot of people passed me, and then when I hit the hill I tried to sprint a bit up it. I didn’t overtake many people and eventually lost some steam about halfway up it, but all in all that mile was done in 7:07, which was a positive surprise. A negative surprise was the next mile, which turned into a 7:25. I think that was because I didn’t have as much fight in me during that mile, but losing about 20 seconds (which I interpreted as 30 seconds) suggested to me I wasn’t going to have much speed the rest of the way.
However, I didn’t let that happen. I challenged myself to fight, and when I saw that I was crossing the 5-mile mark at 34:45, I figured that I might be able to finish a little above 41 minutes, which I knew would be incredible. I kept up the pressure on myself hard, trying to shave off footsteps and run smartly (because extra footsteps and lost tangents could mean a lot). Toward the end a man was challenging me and pulled ahead–I don’t remember if I caught him at the end. Why? Because a tall speedy guy directly challenged me and we fought to finish before each other. I felt him and myself lock into each other as we sprinted, and he was taller and stronger than me and lost me but it was thrilling. I crossed the finish line in my typical loss-of-breath/must-lose-shirt feeling, and I saw Jono and grasped his hand. I later thanked the guy who sprinted with me, and I thought I have have PR’d.
I had … if you don’t count longer races where I probably did a faster 10K. I am thrilled to drive down my Central Park 10K time, and to think that I did it without running as much mileage yet this training period and weighing just shy of 177 lbs. this morning, which is a lot heavier than I want to be. The temperature helped and the rest helped, but apart from those two factors, I am baffled that I could accomplish this fast of time at this state of my body. Will I ever run a sub-40:00 10K? I’m curious!