City Parks 4M Race Report

Well... not much to say here.

Sunday was a beautiful day.  Nice and sunny, and in the 50's.  I had a 90 minute run scheduled, and decided that I'd do the middle third of that as a race which was being held, to test my speed/improvement since the 1/2 marathon.  I wanted to see how fast I was when I wasn't trying to turn on the speed following a swim and bike leg.

Since I was a little late getting out of the house walking the dogs (and thus late heading out for the race), I ran right over to the race and got there as they were removing the tapes between the starting corrals, so not really any time to stretch, unfortunately.  

Anyway, the start was called, and I walked to the start line, starting to jog a little as I got closer.  The running was interesting - I tried doing a bit of what I had done at the half- not pay any attention to what the Garmin said, and trying to just watch the mile clocks and the people in front of me.  It didn't work as well this time.  Not because I was running with a slower group - I was actually placed in a faster corral due to my pace at the half, but because the running was just HARDER.  So many reasons for this - the late night and two drinks the night before, still trying to recover from South Beach, dealing with allergies.  And as a result, my speed was affected.  The last mile, though I  gave it my all, and still couldn't break a 8:03     pace.  When I went through the finish, I hit my watch and got 4.05 miles @ 34:17 for an 8:26 pace.  Not too shabby, I thought.  Official time also had me at 34:17, so I clocked it right at both ends.  Of course, it was off of a 4 mile course, with an a 8:34 average pace.  Only 4 seconds/mile faster than the half marathon pace, and that one felt pretty effortless!

Moral of the story?  Appreciate that my time actually improved even if by only 4 seconds?  Look at Garmin time, not official time?  Nay, neither of those... Oh yeah - how important recovery really is.  Rest is your friend.  I usually push a little too hard.  Sometimes it's probably better to respect your body when it tells you that it really, really doesn't want to train.  

Then I bumped into a TSNY staffer, and stopped to chat with him and his boyfriend for a bit.  After cooling off (a bit too long, perhaps), I hobble-jogged for the next half hour or so to Whole Foods for breakfast.  My 10:43 pace is the hard numbers proof of how exhausted I was.  My hip flexors were in agony, and the "soft proof" that I'd had enough.  Still, 90 minute run was completed, albeit in segments.  It earned me an extremely rare (though becoming more common) Sunday afternoon nap.