Finally did my first race of the year today. I had decided when I signed up that I would fold it into a long run, and use the race to increase my pace at the second half of the race. I was hoping to do the race from miles 12-17 of 20 with 3 mi cool down jog back home, but I kept hitting the snooze button this morning. Anyways, the day went something like this...
Snooze, snooze. Finally got up at 6:25 and left just before 7. I had planned on leaving at 6:40. Jogged throughout the bridle path for about an hr, then to the gazebo at 102 where I was to meet some friends. No one showed up, so I kept jogging back and forth and around 102 to keep my meter running. At 8:15, I finally decided to head over to bag check hoping to find KC there. I had her race number. Thankfully, she was there and had been waiting there for about 30 mins. By the time we left the bag check, the horn had already sounded...the race had begun. KC and I made our way over to the end of the group of runners, and coincidentally, we found JS! We sort of walk/jogged to the starting line, and once there, I split up with them again.
Now for the race, I had hoped on pacing at sub 7:30. The first mile was about 8:07 b/c it was so crowded. The following miles were 7:21, 7:23, 7:20, and 6:31 (.99 miles). I was pretty pleased with the effort. It wasn't easy to keep the 7:20's pace, but it wasn't difficult either. At this point in my training, I don't think I could keep it up for 26.2 miles to qualify for Boston. The last mile I just decided to run fast.
After the race was over, I did a light warm-down jog with another friend and then circled back to the finish line to meet with JS and KC. I warned them that miles after a race always feel more difficult. Today certainly was no exception. KC went three miles to Columbus Circle. JS and I went for four, and those were probably the hardest miles I ran all day.
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