1 Mile, from 80th Street to 60th Street, down 5th Avenue. No turns, just a straight shot of blistering speed right to the lungs. It hurts but is over just as fast as it began.
This was my 3rd time running it and I was a bit nervous. I was chatting to some of my runner friends about this last night. I wasn’t nervous about finishing the race, or running it close to what I might be capable of. What was on my mind, and many others, was would I be able to beat my previous mile time of 4:59?
After a quick jog over to the Start I left Abbe at her corral (Wave starts based on gender and age) and I ran down to the Finish. (It was only 1 mile away.) I ran into Erica and Lora and we had some quick runner talk before wishing each other well and setting off.
As the Women (aged 19-29) came blasting down I watched for Abbe but lost her in the masses. I did, however, see Robin blazing a path! Nice work.
I found Abbe at the Finish and she had accomplished her goal of breaking 7 minutes with 6:38!
She took my position cheering and I ran up to the Start. (It was only 1 mile away.)
It was quite humid out so I grabbed some water before running into Josh, Elyssa and Bojana. We high fived, of course. Josh and I left the gals to their corrals we did some sprints while chatting. We took our place behind the gals as soon as they set off.
Josh and I were probably 50 people back from the Start mats. As the gun went off I counted down how long I had to cross the mat (to subtract it from my clock finish) but I was so amped I kept counting while running and messed up the plan.
I cut hard left and took off, passing a large chunk of the masses. The corrals are not based on speed so it’s always a mixed bag. Moving ahead I passed this guy, then he hung on maintaining pace. Not to judge or tease, because I am happy for anyone who wants to exercise, but home slice had on basketball shorts and may have been wearing high tops. He inspired me to speed up because his foot falls sounded like he was trying to break the concrete. It was like a ‘foot belly flop’ every time he hit the ground. Quite annoying, so I sped up.
The uphill at the halfway point definitely took some spunk out of my game. I tried to just maintain whatever pace I had, which I was unsure of since I wasn’t wearing a watch.
At the crest of the hill I tried getting my heart rate to cool it. I think it worked as I blasted down the decline with ease. It was here that I heard my name being cheered on a few times! Turns out it was my friend Robert. Thanks for the pics man!
As I approached the final 3/4’s of the mile I felt great and got fired up. I also saw Abbe, Elyssa, Erica and Lora off to the side screaming my name which helped tremendously. Just like previous times, even though you can see the Finish and it seems like you’re cruising, it takes an eternity to reach it. All the while watching the clock tick off those precious seconds… 4:50, 4:51, 4:52.
I crossed the Finish at 5:02 but knew I had some sort of buffer based on my start. Later that day when the times were posted I learned that I had a 2 second PR with a time of 4:57!
| Sex/ Age |
Bib | Overall Place | Age Place |
Finish Time |
Pace/ Mile |
AG % |
| M34 | 369 | 117 | 27 | 4:57 | 4:57 | 76.3% |
So now next year will be extra stressful trying to top that. It’s funny how just one second can be such a big deal in a small race like this.
Congrats goes out to all my friends who ran today! It was pretty glorious for everyone. Oh and double ups to the winner, Matt, who beat out Bernard by .2 seconds with a 03:52.4. That, is fast.
Post race lunch with a friend.