This morning I ran the men’s version of the Fitness Mind, Body, Spirit Games 4-Miler in Central Park. I ran it in 26:31 (6:38s).
Below are my unoffficial Garmin stats. I forgot to turn off my watch right after the race so the end time and true distance is compromised a little bit:
The weather was quite gorgeous though I didn’t quite get to notice it as I raced to get to the start line before the corrals closed. I set out on bike this morning to the race, but just before I left I found out that (again) my Garmin 610 discharged while it was charging so I took a few minutes to see how much juice I could get into it. I got into my corral with 30 seconds to spare before they were supposed to be closed! A bit hectic but probably a good thing so I didn’t stew impatiently for the start.
Suddenly, I was off. My first mile was a fast 6:22, which was exciting to see but implied it would be hard to beat my PR for this race (6:22s back in 2009 for a 25:29). I thought my second mile would be on that pace, and while it was a 6:25 that wasn’t so bad. However, mile 3 is the toughest of this course, and sure enough I lost a lot of my speed there. I ran 7:05 (ugh!) for my 3rd mile given all the hills, but I also felt that my body was slower, too, and I couldn’t get it going much faster. That feeling, plus the large number of men who were speeding past me even at my fastest, reduced my confidence to achieve a PR (not that I really believed I could today) which almost zapped my speed. I was able to push myself a bit more in the 4th mile (6:42), with an exciting sprint at the end when I was challenged by someone who met each little nudge I tried to do past him. I have no idea if I won or he won!
I did something not so great last night and it could have spelled disaster today but fortunately didn’t. I had a senna tea last night to help me this morning and it just didn’t work before I set out. During the race I felt a little instability there but it held back. Phew! I shouldn’t try that in the future. I did that because of all the junk I’d eaten in the last few days that I was still carrying. In fact, my weight pre-race ballooned to 180 lbs.! I was 177 after the race and bike home (though some of that weight might have been from treating myself to a Slurpee on the way back) but my eating has been ravenous and reckless of late and my weight is not where I want it to be right now.
6:38s weren’t all that thrilling to have done, but in writing this I realized that’s actually pretty cool. Not counting the 5th Avenue Miles, I’ve only done 3 previous races under 6:40s. My AG percentage was at 65.32% which is pretty good for me at this time of year considering my training.
I couldn’t help but think that also a drain on today’s speed was that I ran not one but TWO marathons last week! I never have done that before! Granted, they weren’t races but marathon-distance training runs, and I did them in 3:30ish, shaving off only 7 seconds in the second run. Those 26.2-mile runs with less than a week of rest between them probably did a number on my body in ways I don’t know (a small but significant number, I should think…), and they probably were a factor in my running 6:38s and not something faster. At least that’s what I was thinking when I couldn’t muster speed in the 3rd mile.
So, woohoo!