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NYRR Colon Cancer Challenge 15K

As it turns out, I haven’t lost all my speed. Some of it is gone, sure, but I’m still here! I finished in 1:05:20, a 7:01/mile pace. It felt great to run that fast. I didn’t run a very good race technically, but this was my first race in months, so I can let some of that slide. Anyway, here goes:

Today we switched to daylight savings time and, even though I went to bed early and slept pretty well, it was tough to wake up and get moving this morning. Looking out the window, it was clear and sunny out (quite a change from yesterday’s gray rainy day), but it was cold and the weather people were predicting wind gusts up to 30mph. I put on tights, a base layer top and a mid-weight long sleeve and stuffed a bunch of other options into my backpack and was off. I met up with Emily and Liam and we got up to the race site with plenty of time.

In the sun it was actually fairly “warm”, but when the wind blew, it was freezing and I was worried about the conditions on the course so I stayed in my warm clothes. My plan had been to take the first two miles as a warm-up and then “race” the rest of the run. That plan was scrapped right about from the start. I went out at a reasonable pace, but picked it up too early and as I hit the second mile marker, I noticed that I’d just run a 6:28 mile, which was way way too fast. So I slowed it down, but perhaps a little too much, running the third mile in 7:30 (this was the windiest and hilliest part of the course, though). From there on out, most miles were within a few seconds of 7:00, with two spikes (one “down” to 7:14 and one “up” to 6:41). I felt like my pacing was erratic, too much up and down, but my mile splits don’t really indicate that. Maybe I was doing it within the miles or maybe it was just my imagination. At about mile 5 I met up with some guys and ran with them for a couple miles until one took off ahead (I’m still kicking myself for not sticking with him – he ended up beating me by about a minute) and one dropped off the back.

I definitely over-dressed. There were only a couple places with strong winds and most of the race was in the sun. I was sweating pretty hard from near the beginning. I didn’t want to stop to take off my long-sleeve and I didn’t want to have to carry the damn thing. I can’t say for certain that I would have been faster in shorts and a lighter top, but I definitely would have been more comfortable.

I’m very pleased with my effort. I didn’t expect to average 7:00’s and am happy to say that I could have kept up about that pace for another couple miles, I think. It wasn’t easy and I felt like I was working harder that I did last year to run at a similar pace. My time was also slower than I did the Cherry Blossom 10 miler last April, but that was the fastest race of my life (and an almost pancake flat course…). (I just checked and my average heart rate during the Cherry Blossom was actually three beats per minute faster than today, so my heart wasn’t working faster today. Based on perceived effort though, I still think today was “harder”.)

Running in a NYRR race will do wonders for negative thinking about living in New York. It really is one of those things that makes New York great. Being out there with all those great runners on a random March Sunday feels wonderful. It almost – almost – makes me want to be part of a running team… And after the race, I went over to Equinox near the course to stretch and take a shower. While stretching a group of people who’d just done the race started talking. It was nice to briefly hang out with them – especially since one did Lake Placid last year and one is doing it this year. There was also a woman there who is one of 48 women running in the Women’s Invitational 8K in Central Park next Saturday. She didn’t do today’s race, instead she was out for 18 miles this morning. She’s getting ready to be out there for her first race with all the pros and Olympians!

Race – March 9
Distance: 15K (9.32 miles)
Time: 1:05:20 (pace: 7:01/mile)
Average heart rate: 160
Course: Central Park, NYC
Conditions: Cold (low 30’s), strong winds, bright sun

Splits:
Mile 1 – 7:13
2 – 6:28
3 – 7:31
4 – 7:01
5 – 7:04
6 – 7:14
7 – 6:41
8 – 7:03
9 – 6:58
.32 – 2:08

Place:
Overall: 342/3,280 (top 10.4%)
All men: 299/1,754 (top 17.0%)
Age group: 116/618 (top 18.8%)

Indoor Bike – March 9
Time: 30 minutes
Average heart rate: 108