We didn’t find parking as quickly as we had hoped. We jogged over to the race as part of our warmup. My legs felt like lead. We check a bag and had about 10 minutes before race start.
We tried to squeeze in a warmup with some speed. It didn’t really happen. Todd is in the 1st corral I’m in the 2nd. I’m late enough that I put myself at the very back of the 2nd corral and just stay there.
I’m really surprised at how uninspired my legs are feeling. Yesterday was a complete day off for me. I took pictures at the 5K race Genine ran. (She did really well BTW, I’ll let her report on that).
Today’s run should probably be a hard effort. It would fit the training plan nicely if that happened. So I make an effort to stay in this mentally. The shorter the distance the greater the suffer. The goal is to run at a pace that is just a touch slower than the point where my brain starts thinking “I really want to stop”, over and over again.
Horn sounds and we are off, and we are walking, jogging….. walking….. jogging… Crossing the start line barely jogging, great. This typically doesn’t happen, I wonder what the hold up is. I’m off to a slow start. I guess the back of the corral was a bad idea. Not a big deal, I’m just weaving around more often than I typically do. Unfortunately, there is no race day rush mentally. The one thing on my mind is still the fact that my legs are feeling like junk. I’m pushing tho’.
Mile 1: 7:30 min/mile HR 170-178
Not bad considering the congestion at the start. I’ve gotta get my mind off of my legs. Time to start picking people to chase down. This works fairly well. By the end of mile 2 I feel like I’m in my pace group, I’m not gaining much ground on anyone.
Mile 2: 7:14 min/mile HR 178-180
I decide to pick people that seem to be running this pace easily, figuring they will pace well for the next 2 miles. I’ve got a hill to climb in mile 3. I’m reminded that I no longer pass people on the climbs. That’s unfortunate. I’m staying close to my targets, I’m not letting them get away.
Mile 3: 7:34 min/mile HR 180-185
Alright the toughest part of the course is behind me. I’d like to say I turned it up into high gear for the final mile. I don’t think that’s the case here. I think I took advantage of the downhill and maintained the effort I’d already been pushing.
Mile 4: 7:07 min/mile HR 181-189.
Finish time: 29:28 which puts me in at a 7:22 min/mile.
I’m happy with that result. The way my legs were feeling today, I easily could have decided to jog the course for a training run. Instead, I got to find out that even when the legs feel lousy, that doesn’t mean they can’t race. It’s funny tho’, my 15K race a few weeks ago was a slower pace than today but felt faster.
It was a beautiful morning in Central Park with the trees flowering and it was warm enough to consider shorts and T-shirt, for the run. As we drove out of the city we saw people gathered for the Lincoln Tunnel run. You run the tube under the Hudson from NJ to NY. That might be a good run in the middle of the winter but certainly not today.
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