Category: 4-Milers

Wow! I did the Central Park Conservancy Run for Central Park 4-Miler in Central Park this morning, and I did it fast! It was going to be a scorcher today but for some reason it didn’t feel as bad as I was expecting. It was 82 degrees with 53% humidity at the start. I say “Wow!” because I was not expecting wow. It was almost like Opposite Day, my results compared to my expectations . . .

I worked until 3am-ish last night/this morning, and only ended up with about 3.5 hours of sleep. While I did get pasta last night around dinnertime, I wasn’t eating that well and I was on my feel for hours at a time the last two days. I took a short jog to get my number but I was feeling dead. I figured, Maybe I’ll do this run in 32 minutes (an 8-minute mile) … I won’t push myself … I have nothing to prove here … this is just to run a marathon qualifying race …
Garmin Unofficial Results:

Well, well. I started off at a decent pace but realized I had just a little bit of speed with me. I figured it would leave or just taper and it did a bit, but not too much. In fact, my first two miles according to my Garmin were 6:40 then 6:46, which are quite excellent miles for me right now! I then ran a 7:09 through the hilliest part of this race, then didn’t keep track of my 4th mile, which ended up on my Garmin as a 6:33! (I had no idea I was that fast for that mile!)

The official results said I finished in 27:22. That’s a 6:50. My Garmin put me a little faster, but no worries: This is much, much, much faster than I thought I would run today. To think I would run 8:00s and then I go and run 6:50s!! And in this weather!!! With so little sleep!!!!

These 6:50s are a) a sign that I am improving in my running, b) a sign I’m getting faster, c) signal that I don’t need to worry so much about missing a couple of runs because of difficult work scheduling, d) make me happy and proud, and e) yea. I felt my left ankle a bit around the first mile marker but it never gave out. And the side of my left knee was a little sensitive, but more after I hit the gym for abs, glutes, arms, back, pecs, quads, calves, then abs again. I’m going to try to get a few hours of sleep now in order to catch up. But this is a nice achievement after a hellish couple of days of work. Woohoo!

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!

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.