I had my best race ever on saturday!
My morning started off as it has been these past few weekends; bright and early, a banana, and a train ride somewhere. Saturday was the NYRR Team Championships, and according to Coach Frank, this was one of the more competitive races of the year. It was a 5 mile race through central park. Doesn't sound like it would be intense, right? Well it was. As Coach Frank explained, the most competitive runners take this race seriously - as it gives the team with the best results "bragging" rights. For what? I'm still not sure, but it was so much fun!
Jackie and I made it up to the park for 7:30 am, which was 2 and a half hrs before our race even started. The men started at 9 and the women at 10. Although it was early, we got to see the men and those who opted for the 10 mi practice warm up and hit the street. We got to cheer on our mens team as they did their 5 mile race. At 9:15, the women racers did our 1 mi warm up and stretch and headed over to the start for our 10 am start...
After "God Bless America", the horn blows and off we go! Our teammates that didn't run the race were running the opposite of the race, cheering us on, "yeah Team for Kids!" "Great job Alicia and Maggie, keep it up!" For the first mile, my running partner and I ran under 8:30. Good pace.. Letting lots of people pass, we knew they would be sucking wind in about 2 miles and we decided this pace was good. Mile 2--negative split. About half a minute. Wow! Feeling great I decided to keep this pace and kept it up through mile 3. Mile 3--another negative split? Nice! Mile 4 and 5, I really concentrated on keeping it steady, I felt great and my knees were holding well so I said to myself, "don't kill yourself Lee!"next weekend is the half marathon! Rounding the bend, approaching engineers gate I hear tons of people cheering and clapping! What a rush! Down into the home stretch, I hear my name and tons of people cheering for TFK! it was so cool to see and hear all of your teammates cheering you on! Approaching that finish line, I see the pace clock ticking 39:50.... 39:55, 39:56, 39:57... And I cross! Under 40 minutes! And I still get to minus the time before I crossed the start, wohoo! Before I crossed, all I could think about was Coach Frank's speech about holding back your enery in the beginning and saving it for the end. Not only will you be passing all those people who took it out way too fast in the beginning, but most importantly, 3:59.59 is better than 4:00.01. And boy is that true!
Actual final time:
39:39
Pace/mile:
7:55
Cant wait for next weekend!! NYC half Marathon, bring it baby!!!
My morning started off as it has been these past few weekends; bright and early, a banana, and a train ride somewhere. Saturday was the NYRR Team Championships, and according to Coach Frank, this was one of the more competitive races of the year. It was a 5 mile race through central park. Doesn't sound like it would be intense, right? Well it was. As Coach Frank explained, the most competitive runners take this race seriously - as it gives the team with the best results "bragging" rights. For what? I'm still not sure, but it was so much fun!
Jackie and I made it up to the park for 7:30 am, which was 2 and a half hrs before our race even started. The men started at 9 and the women at 10. Although it was early, we got to see the men and those who opted for the 10 mi practice warm up and hit the street. We got to cheer on our mens team as they did their 5 mile race. At 9:15, the women racers did our 1 mi warm up and stretch and headed over to the start for our 10 am start...
After "God Bless America", the horn blows and off we go! Our teammates that didn't run the race were running the opposite of the race, cheering us on, "yeah Team for Kids!" "Great job Alicia and Maggie, keep it up!" For the first mile, my running partner and I ran under 8:30. Good pace.. Letting lots of people pass, we knew they would be sucking wind in about 2 miles and we decided this pace was good. Mile 2--negative split. About half a minute. Wow! Feeling great I decided to keep this pace and kept it up through mile 3. Mile 3--another negative split? Nice! Mile 4 and 5, I really concentrated on keeping it steady, I felt great and my knees were holding well so I said to myself, "don't kill yourself Lee!"next weekend is the half marathon! Rounding the bend, approaching engineers gate I hear tons of people cheering and clapping! What a rush! Down into the home stretch, I hear my name and tons of people cheering for TFK! it was so cool to see and hear all of your teammates cheering you on! Approaching that finish line, I see the pace clock ticking 39:50.... 39:55, 39:56, 39:57... And I cross! Under 40 minutes! And I still get to minus the time before I crossed the start, wohoo! Before I crossed, all I could think about was Coach Frank's speech about holding back your enery in the beginning and saving it for the end. Not only will you be passing all those people who took it out way too fast in the beginning, but most importantly, 3:59.59 is better than 4:00.01. And boy is that true!
Actual final time:
39:39
Pace/mile:
7:55
Cant wait for next weekend!! NYC half Marathon, bring it baby!!!
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