Race Report: Run As One 4-Miles

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Having run 6 of 7 days this week, I had not planned on really racing today. To that point, I didn't even put on my racing shoes. When the gun went off though, I thought, "why not." I didn't think it would hurt to do a short race two weeks before a marathon. I also wanted to try and redeem my efforts from my 10k last week when I failed, officially, to break 6:45.

My race splits were as follows:

Mile 1 (6:49) - Considering that Cat Hill was in the first half mile, I thought to take the first mile relatively easy. I figured I couldn't make up all my time in the first half mile, but I could lose a lot of time if I pushed too hard.

Mile 2 (6:31) - More down grades than up, which meant I could push the pace. A 6:40 average after two miles was good progress. At this point, I was thinking I may be able to break into the 6:30's if I didn't mess up mile 3.

Mile 3 (6:40) - I didn't have good memories of this mile. During the summer heat last year, I ran an 8+ minute DURING a race. I was just as surprised as I was out of breath. I had that in mind so I tried to maintain my effort instead of pushing. This was also an uphill mile, so I figured it would be slower. At the mile 3 marker, I was very happy with the 6:40 pace.

Mile 4 (6:28) - Put the foot and the gas and hold on for dear life. It helped that there was a lot of down grade on the last mile. As I turned onto 72nd, I saw the race clock and just wanted to finish under 27:00. "No problem," I thought, but I actually had to sprint the last 25m to cross at 27:00.

Officially, my race time was 26:33 @ 6:38/mile. Woohoo! Lowered the 6:44 on my bib.

I have 6 more races to do this year, which means I have ample opportunity to try to bring that time even lower. Last year, it was all about doing miles for marathon training. I think it will be fun to focus on lowering my time for short races this year.