NYRR Run for the Parks 4 miler

Early 8AM start, Todd picks me up at 6:15. Genine isn't going with us. She scheduled a massage instead. Ummm, how did that happen?? Ha ha.

Easy drive in, not as quick to find a parking place. Which doesn't leave us much time. It was 10 minutes before the start of the race when we checked the bags. Warmup consisted of jogging to the race start and then a short burst of speed. So another week with a bad warmup, not a big deal.

I biked 34 miles in the cold yesterday, ran 4 miles Friday and the track workout Thursday. I have no expectation of having an awesome race. It will be in line with the rest of them for sure but unlikely to be the fastest so far.
Also after seeing Jon's splits from last weekend's 4 miler, the concept of running today's race with negative splits was on my mind. I'm in the middle of the 2nd corral. I should probably start making a point of moving further ahead in the corral because other than the Brooklyn race, I always find myself feeling like I'm being held back in traffic for the first mile.

Alright, so if I'm going for negative split, I've gotta keep my HR at about 180 for the first couple miles.
Mile 1: 7:16 175HR
Mile 2: 7:11 182 HR
Mile 3: 7:33 185HR
Mile 4: 7:13 187 HR
Finish time of 29:13 7:18 avg pace
Not a negative split but perhaps more even that I've had in the past.

I can't help but think about last years 15K where I averaged a 7:24 pace. I keep thinking I'm way behind on the training this year. I'm guessing it's not a very good comparison tho'. I'm willing to bet that I really tapered for that race last year. Whereas this year, I've been treating the races as part of the training. I've been doing so many of them, it's impossible for me to taper for them. Today was my 7th race in 10 weeks. I've got to trust that when I finally taper for the Columbia Triathlon, that I'll find myself feeling a whole lot better than I have been during these races. Or maybe that should say, still suffering but with a better result.