Father's Day 5 Miler Race Report

So, I missed my sub-31 goal, but given the heat still finished in a solid 31:48. The forecast for today was 93 with a heat index over 100 and it was indeed a scorcher. However, the opening to the race, in the shade of West Drive in Central Park made the pre-race standing seem deceptively cool. After the Prostate people spoke. And Mary Wittenberg spoke. And the ESPN radio people spoke. And the ABC people spoke. And the race director spoke, we finially managed to get underway. I really think that the talking before these races has gotten longer, at least in Central Park. Seems to have been much shorter at the Brooklyn Half, even with the Borough Prez's speech.

So, at the 10K a few weeks ago I lined up (mostly) honestly and as punishment ran the first mile of a race where I'd average a 6:25 pace at 7:40. This time, I lined up with the 5mm crowd just back of the "elite" runners. This would have worked fantastically, but for the heat. I went round the first turn of the 72nd Street Transverse at near race-pace. We had screaming race marshalls yelling at us to stay in the rec lane. Ridiculous, since this was the early crowd and the bulk of participants weren't even comoing through yet. These races may have gotten too big for Central Park. I suggest running a men's and women's field for most future races because the crowds have outstripped the roads.

Anyway, I went through the first mile in 6:10 and caught Assistant Coach Joe Yates. Fantastic: I was right on pace. Not fantastic: thanks to the heat, I felt like I'd been running 30s/mile ahead of pace. Plus, the heat had struck through ambush due to the deceptively cool waiting during the talking before the start. Now it was out for interest! Time to dial it back. Let me say something here about running in Central Park. Central Park's all bucolic, it's where everyone wants to go when they visit the City. It is a difficult place to run. Although the roads are wide and (at least on the weekends) free of traffic, the park's very, very hilly. Honestly, the courses through the Park undulate like a belly dancer's hips. Today's course was one of the flattest -- "A PR course" as Terry Baker put it on Thursday. Let's just say I felt every minute of this "PR" when climbing those hills on the back side. I never ran a race course in DC as difficult any given race in Central Park, and that includes today's "easy" route. That, of course, is part of the reason the Marine Corp Marathon is my target for a BQ in the fall -- after racing Central Park for 9 months, the MCM course will seem easy!

Speaking of Terry, I caught him at about 2.5-3 miles. Went through 3 at about 19 minutes, and then Coach Joe caught me. Joe looked like he was flying and I really thought he was going to sprint past, but we locked in step and fortunately for me, then started a downhill, where I could both run fast and catch my breath. I pulled a few steps in front and maintained that through the end, with the "Faster so Coach Joe doesn't catch you. Faster so Coach Joe doesn't catch you" mantra repeating in my mind. Through the end I was convinced Joe was two steps behind, which led to a very solid last two miles.

I knew from the start that sub-31 would be very difficult in the heat and by mile one knew it was out of the question. So, I was very pleased when I managed the end at 31:48, just 9s/mile off the pace. One a legitimate running day (i.e. 50 degrees or so), that time would be made up no problem. Furthermore, I'm very happy to report that the McMillan Running Calculator translates that 5 mile time to an equally trained marathon time of 3:07, almost a 4 minute Boston Qualifying cushion. And in the heat, no less. Hopefully that means I'm golden for the upcoming training cycle.

By the way, Coach Joe, who I was convinced was right on my heels for the last 2 miles, came in 10s after I crossed the line. I thanked him because I wouldn't had done so well if I hadn't been trying to outrun him. He told me that if it hadn't been so hot, he'd have nailed me! Ha! Fantastic. If it hadn't been so hot, I'd have been across the finish a minute sooner. (Just to be fair, Joe is 20 years older than I am; so he'd still have outraced me even if I'd won by a two minutes.)

At the end a group of about 15 Flyers met up to chat about the race, bitch about the weather and stand in the spray from the open fire hose. That was heavenly; I wish there'd been a couple more fire hoses in the middle of the course.

Well, this is the end of the spring season. . . I'll have the spring recap in a day or two. Taking this week easy on the running (15-20ish miles) before the first week of marathon training. However, it looks good for the BQ shot based on the spring season.

PS: Congrats to Lloyd Hoo, who won 2 tixs to the Jets at the post-race raffle. I really hope photos of your celebration dace when you claimed the tixs make it onto the web. (If they do, this post'll be updated to include a link.) Have a great time at the game!