long overdue

Alright. Those of you who put up with my bitching and moaning about the Snowflake 4-miler…and I thank those of you who did …rest assured this report won’t be anything like that. If anything, it’s a complete 180.

So today was the Colon Cancer 15K. Wasn’t guaranteed anything except for an automatic PR (I’ve never run a 15K before. The one time last year I was supposed to, I had to bail due to extreme hangover.) Basically, it was just an excuse to get a 9.32 mile run in, but secretly hoping for a better race than the Snowflake. And also to try out the new shoes for a longer run. After the gorgeous weather the last 2 days, unfortunately I awoke to rain this morning. The actual temps were nice though-borderline singlet weather! But decided to be safe and wear shorts and team long-sleeve shirt (and lots of BodyGlide.)

So, the usual pre-race routine…jog to the start-and this time I was able to get more stretching in, so I felt much better than I did at the beginning of the Snowflake…and chat with a few teammates while waiting for the starting gun. The rain the entire time would let up at some parts, but come down harder at other parts, but still not overly bad. OK, so the weather gods didn’t cut me a break…but the running gods definitely did.

Mile 1-across the 72nd street transverse then up the West Drive incline til somewhere in the early 80s? This mile was 8:25-why did that feel easy? hmmmm…
Mile 2-through the west side hills, to around west 96th? 8:17-OK, this was a more downhill mile than the last. But still faster than I expected, am I gonna pay for this at the end?
Mile 3-across the 102nd street transverse to around Engineer’s Gate. Eased off a little here, that was 8:41. Plus this mile is always a tough one, for some reason when going clockwise. Saw our assistant coach here cheering for us-thanks!
Mile 4-this mile included Cat Hill downhill and I used that to the fullest extent-8:10. Boy did those 4 miles fly by.
Mile 5 was almost the same as the first mile, but we got the bottom part of Cat Hill in this mile-this was 8:34.
Mile 6 same as mile 2, and this one came in better than last time at 8:10. I did some quick on-the-fly calculations…even though I had music to listen to for an hour and a half, could I have a shot at breaking 1:20?
Mile 7 same as mile 3…passed a teammate here who passed me in the early going, and I didn’t look back. Another one better than the last loop-8:31. Assistant coach still out there cheering for us in the rain. Boy he’s a trooper
Mile 8-knowing I only had less than a 5K left to go and the hardest part was behind me, kicked it up a notch. And I love Cat Hill downhill-clocked my fastest mile split of the race at 8:03.
Mile 9 continued past 72nd St, and around the bottom of the park. Not much further to go, just keep going-nabbed an 8:15 for this mile.
The last .32 of a mile was tougher-uphill finish to Tavern on the Green, those hills are always a bitch when you’re tired. But by that time I was thinking “la la la I’m gonna break 1:20″ so i didn’t care. Saw a couple of my teammates cheering near the finish chute to help bring me in strong-that last split was 2:33 (a 7:58 pace)

Final stats-1:17:39, 8:20 pace. Nice first 15K time to put on the books.

I’m very happy with this time!! I knew I was long overdue for a good race and here I got it. And better yet, here are my 4-mile splits…

first 4-mile loop-33:33 (8:23 pace)
2nd 4-mile loop-33:18 (8:19 pace)
coupled with the last 1.32 miles…yeah, nice negative splits there.
Plus my pace in this race was faster than in the Snowflake-and this was over twice as long!!
And I didn’t feel at all like I left it all out there…like I could have easily kept it up for another few miles, meaning maybe…a sub 1:45 half may be too much to ask, but a sub-1:50 half…I think that may be in the cards this spring in Queens, especially since that course is easier than Central Park. And I’m liking those Brooks Adrenalines more and more each time I run in them.

So, I am running Brooklyn this Saturday-no time expectation but all I want to get out of it is a long run outside Central Park, to support the team at the points race and just a nice run to erase the ghosts of last year’s Brooklyn Half. Anything else is icing on the cake.

now playing: “call on me” ~ eric prydz

running in circles

So ironic. Friday, the first nice, springlike day of ’06…I’m scheduled to run inside!!

In a change of pace, Friday night, the Flyers took on Chelsea Piers for a fun, informal track meet with their running club. Basically, it was a chance for the track fans to try out a different location, those who have never tried track to get their feet wet, and those inbetween to just have a good time.

I’ll be honest-I’m not a sprinter. I ran the 5th Avenue Mile in ’04 just to get a mile time on the books, and while very pleased with my time, it definitely hurt. I appreciated 10K’s and half-marathons much more afterwards-gotta love pacing yourself. So, I was more there to support the team and did just the 400m race and a 200m leg of a relay and even then didn’t go all out. (my reasoning for the shorter intervals-wanted to lessen the duration of the agony!) Our assistant coach was quite brave-he raced the mile, the 800m, the 400m and a relay leg!!

So the meet moved and ended pretty quick, so a bunch of us just looked around the place (gorgeous gym/sports complex, but very very pricey!!) until it was time to head to Chelsea Brewing Company for a pint (or 2, or 3…) Not surprisingly, the post-meet drinks lasted longer than the actual meet did.