2012 NYRR Gridiron Classic 4 Mile

The day before the race I wanted to have the day off but I ended up having to swim 2500m. I’m taking my sleep very seriously. I missed a morning swim because of that and I moved it to Saturday. A few hours after my swim, I went to get a massage. Typically I go deep tissue and it’s an hour of pain. This time I had them take it easy. All was going well, until I put my face into that funky “pillow”. I seemed to be incredibly allergic to it. Within seconds my sinuses we inflamed and draining. (I know TMI). I didn’t worry much about it. I figured the netipot would chill it out. Nope, I spent the rest of my day with a Kleenex box at my side. I had to resort to Sudafed. I still wasn’t clear when I fell asleep. (I'll be taking allergy medicine before my next massage)

I built my week’s training schedule around this race. I definitely didn’t expect to PR the distance or anything. I just figured it might work out to be a good measuring stick. My swim and bike speeds are awful but I was curious to find out where my run fitness is.

I was feeling pretty good. I was thrilled that my foot was co-operating. I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this race in terms of my finish time. The one thing I had in my head was the hills. I have been losing ground on the uphills recently. I’ve been running plenty of hills bigger than what’s in Central Park tho’. I was curious to see what was going to happen on the hills today.

I was in the second corral. I put myself in around the 2/3’s mark. I was kind of surprised at the lack of football jerseys around me. Last year, it felt like I was surrounded by people wearing jerseys. (I was wearing a Bruce Smith jersey). It wasn’t until after the race that I realized that last year, I think I started back in the 4000’s or so for some reason. I guess the first couple corrals are a bit more serious about what they are going to wear to race.

I didn’t have a watch or HR monitor. I forgot to look at the clock when I reached the start line. First mile I’m going to have to make a guess at my pace. I did not start out crazy fast. I haven’t trained for that. I just wanted to fall into a pace that I felt that I could hold for 4 miles. Reached the mile marker it said 8:45. I’m guessing it was very possible that it took me 45 seconds to reach the start line. So I figured 8 min/mile. That’s reasonable.

Mile 2. I’ve run this many times but I’ve never looked at elevation maps. This part of the course always feels the easiest to me. I don’t know if it’s descending or if it’s that the blood has finally loaded into the muscles and it just feels good to be running. I figured I’d be looking at 16:45 when I got to the marker. I got there at 16:00… I’ll admit that I thought “Uh-oh” when I saw that. I said earlier that I wasn’t sure where I was in terms of fitness. Well, I’m fairly certain 7:15 was not going to be sustainable but what’s done is done. I did not ease off the gas. I just kept going completely by feel.

Mile 3. The climb I’ve been waiting for. I made sure I did not get boxed in. It turns out that I pretty much held the pace with everyone around me. That’s fine with me. I’ve been giving up ground on the climbs recently. I’ve definitely improved here. I think my split was nearly 7:30.

Mile 4. I’m not exactly sure what happened here. There is a reasonable descent during this mile. I’m guessing it starts around 3.5 miles (I could be wrong). Well this is what happened. On the descent, I felt that I was being passed often and yet wasn’t passing anyone. Am I just a bad at descents right now? I’m not sure, because once it flattened out in the final push to the finish. I realized I was running out of steam. There was no push, just a continuation. As I approached the finish line, the announcer called me “Old School” in my Bruce Smith jersey. (Dang.. I’m getting old). The good news was that I realized I might have finished in under 30 minutes. Which would mean a 7:30 pace.

I kept my eye out for Jon as I walked out of the finish area. We keep saying we are going to catch up at one of the events and it never happens.

When I got home, I looked up results online. I ran a 7:27 pace! That is way better than I figured I could run. THAT makes me happy.

Todd hasn’t run much lately and was going to take it easy. He ran a 7:07 pace.

Then I looked up Jon’s results. I knew he’d be sub 7 min mile for the first time at a NYRR event. Well he kind of crushed it. I don’t want to steal his thunder if anyone happens to read my blog first, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Alright, now that’s it’s evening and I’m writing this. My right heel is giving me some grief. I’ve got ice on it and I’m hoping that it won’t be a problem for long. Because now that I’ve seen my results, I think I’ve got some goals in mind. More on that later, Genine is home from work and we are 2 hours behind on watching the Superbowl.