Category: 5-Milers

Not a “Race” Per Se

This morning I did the Portugal Day 5-Miler in Central Park. In 71-degree weather with 63% humidity, the conditions felt good and felt warmer as the race went on. I finished in 39:24, or 7:53s.

Obviously, these aren’t the kind of results you’d expect from someone who qualified again for Boston by doing Boston just two months ago. These results are the result of sitting for hours and hours of late as I tweak code for website designs I’ve been working on. My lack of cardiovascular support was to be expected.

Because of that, I didn’t set my sites on any very high goals. I roughly aimed to do 8:00s, but more in my mind was to not race, and instead just run, and run slow at that. I think I achieved those goals as I didn’t get competitive with other runners and I let floods of people pass me. I did get out one of my famous sprinting finishes, fists pumping like a machine and all.

My Garmin died just before the race, probably the result of missing the charging contacts. I wasn’t upset, though. In fact, a lack of Garmin may have helped me stay focused on my non-competitive goals. Here are manually entered stats:

Pushed & Gained

This morning I completed the Achilles Hope & Possibility 5-Miler in Central Park. It was 77 degrees at the start, overcast, and about 65% humidity. I tried pushing myself today to do better than last weekend’s 5-mile race. The course was a different direction than last weekend’s course, and that course may have given me an advantage with a beginning fast downhill. Despite that boost, I felt I raced faster, a push that showed in my official results: I ran the 5-miler in 35:07, equating to doing 7:01s.

Unofficial Results per Garmin:

Since I completed my long run a little more than 12 hours before, I was still a bit sore. My right leg felt a little injured but warming up helped it. By race time, it seemed ready to go.

With a lot of disabled athletes on the field, the race was a bit like an obstacle course. There were runners in wheelchairs, runners with blades, blind runners, and runners with an assortment of disabilities, and passing them made me a little nervous out of fear I might knock one down or trip one up. In the end, a older blind runner with his 3-man guide crew overtook me in the last couple of miles and I never caught him. That’s a testament to just how disabled a disabled runner may be: Not very! 😀

But today’s results showed a gain in my training. I pushed myself and maintained a better pace over the course. I got my first mile out in 6:38 (N.B. there was a downhill beginning), and other miles were pretty fast, including two other miles done in sub-7:00s. My official pace is slower than the pace my Garmin measured (6:59s), which is a little disappointing but what can you do but get better. After the race was finished, I set to my mind to hit the gym, but mounting the subways steps, I decided against it given how tired my legs and brain felt. I eventually grabbed much-needed nap.

Ming!

Today I ran the NYRR’s Annual Father’s Day Race Against Prostate Cancer Presented by ABC7. It was a 5-mile race in probably about 78-degree weather with about 65% humidity.

I didn’t do as well as last year (click here and scroll to June 21st), but last year was in 63-degree weather. While it was 97% humidity that day, it didn’t feel bad then. I also didn’t precede that race with a 12.3-mile run the day before.

What seemed to match today’s race was the speediness I had in the first part of the race, a negative split for the second mile, plus Ming. Who’s Ming? Ming was this Asian guy with a ponytail I remember from the race last year. I would trail him then he’d walk, then pass me when he ran again. After that race, I asked him about his training, and I incorporated some of his advice into my training last year. This year, he passed me and stayed solidly in front of me. I didn’t talk to him this year, but I almost wanted to!

Unofficial Results per Garmin:

So what were my official results for today’s race? I did this 5-miler in 35:26, which meant I averaged 7:05s. However, by Garmin, my first mile was in 6:44, and my second was in 6:40! After then, I started tapering a bit. My huge blister on my left foot wasn’t much of a problem, nor was my back, which is so messed up with inflammation I had to take ibuprofen last night to make it through the night.

You can see my finish video here. Click on the second video and around the 1:16 mark (about 36:00 on the race clock) you can see my having just crossed the finish and whip up my first to expose my stomach. I was so hot!

Last year I did this race in 34:03, or 6:48s. Considering my training level around this time last year, it seems my current shape is around the shape I was then despite the difference in performance today (which seems attributable largely to heat and humidity and maybe the long run yesterday).