Nice warm day on Sunday, so it was off to the races!
It was the NYRR Join the Voices 5 Miler in Central Park for me. And it turned out to be a good day.
I don’t think I can oversell the weather. It was 44° at the start according to the race results, but it felt much warmer. Last year, this race was a 10k and it was, according to my notes (!), 30°. It was like a summer day. With a few thousand emaciated people waiting to hurl themselves down the same trodden road they’ve run many times before.
I met my friend John up here in Croton — we had an extended email exchange of what time to leave. He is a much faster runner than I, and therefore likes to leave much later than I do. I wanted to leave at 6:30am. I think he wanted to leave at 7am. We settled at 6:40am. Met a few more Taconics, then went down in separate cars for logistical reasons too boring to articulate.
In the city, we found some awesome on-street parking, went to Starbucks to get a coffee. It took about a million years to get served, and then we were running late. And not a good late either. It was my idea to park on the west side, because the start of the race was on the west side. Unfortunately, bag drop was quite close to the — dare I say it — east side. I had a rather non-optional need to use the portapotty, so I was getting a little stressed. But wound up making it to the start with a few minutes to spare, but absolutely no warm up or no spare time.
One of the great things about doing more of these NYRR races is there is always a friendly group at the start. On this race, I was in the first corale, and there were no elites, so we were right up at the starting line. I hung out with a bunch of the Taconics — the older guys seem to know just about everyone, and it’s a blast to get a sense of kinship before the gun goes off. Once it starts, no more talking alas as we’re all trying to not drop dead from a lack of oxygen.
The start was great for me, even as some of my friends found it a bit jammed out of the gate. I was shooting for a 6:31 pace, and I came in at 6:14 for the first mile. A little fast, but I was feeling good. The second mile has the dreaded cat hill in it, and I tried to push keep my effort steady, and wond up with a 6:28. Mile 3 is the flattest mile in the course, and I did a 6:18. Mile 4. Oh man. Mile 4. Rolling hills. In a 10k these west side hills seem to be pretty pleasant. In this shorter race, I was just freaking hating it. Pushing as hard as I could, but feeling like I was standing still. I was trying thing of the distance left in the race, and just work towards finishing. I was working towards quitting running. 6:34 pace for this mile. Off my target.
Now I was in the final mile. Bring it home. Leave nothing out there. Bullshit. I would have left it all out there for a cheeseburger and a cup of coffee. After 3 minutes into the mile, I felt like I was hitting my pace and I started to look for the “800m to go ” no sign. Good grief. They put out a 800m sign, right? Where the hell is it? When will this race end? These shorter distances should be easier. I think I’m hitting the wall. In mile 5. This race sucks.
I kept running and someone said “quarter mile to go” so I though “no signs” and realized I was getting close. Tried to open it up. Finished in 32:22. Exhausted.
Found some friends afterwards. One friend, another Greg (we have many Gregs in the Taconics) said “man, that was a PR for you, no?” And I was all like “no way man, I feel like crap. No way.” But then I went to my phone and checked my spreadsheet and yes, yes it was — about 25 seconds faster than I ran the Portugal Day 5 miler in May. Nice.
But still, I felt like crap. So I guess I don’t know what I learned. Leave earlier? Warm up? Ug.
Afterwards we all went to a bar and hung out as a team. It was fantastic. Good friends, good times.
I guess I am happy — I feel like a better strategy would have been a slower few seconds in the first couple of miles, and then a more even pace throughout. I’ll have to figure out how to do that sometime.
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