Team Championships

The NYRR Team Championships were today -- what a great event!

The field was limited to members of the various local clubs that are competing for the points championship. The race was split into separate men's (8AM) and women's (9AM) five mile races. This meant that the men could cheer for their fairer team mates, and visa versa.

I had a goal for this race -- to finally average under 7:00 minutes per mile. At the race start, the scene seemed to be set for me to make it. The weather was unseasonably cool, and the starting line traffic jam would be greatly reduced by the club-only limitation and the separation of the men's and women's races. There were only 777 folks in my race, instead of the usual 5000.

At the start, I was able to set my own pace. No bobbing and weaving today. I hit the first mile at 7:07 -- good, I didn't go out too fast, but I did have to pick it up if I was going to make my goal. The second mile was downhill, and I knew I had to take full advantage. I ran a 6:48, which put me on pace, but without room to fade. I passed a few female Flyers along the way, and their cheers were inspiring. I knew that mile 4 was going to be tough, so I tried to maintain pace in mile three (6:59). It was looking pretty good, but "cat hill" lay ahead. My plan was to let my time slip up the hill, just maintaining the effort level, and then nail the last mile. The question was, how slow would mile 4 be? The answer was 7:10, which left me with 6 seconds to make up in the last mile.
I had passed cat hill, and I knew the last mile was downhill overall. When I saw that I had 6 seconds to make up, I was pretty sure I could do it. I kicked it up a notch on the flat and did a mental "health check". The legs were holding up fine. When I hit the big downhill, I was sure I would make it. It was just a question of by how much. I burned down the hill, and just had a few hundred yards of flat to coast to the finish. Good thing too, 'cause I was spent.

It was then that I hit the first Flyer cheering section. The split of the men's and women's races resulted in much better cheering than usual. I decided I could coast later, and tried to look strong and fast for the crowd. Then I passed yet another group of cheering Flyers, and had to kick it up a notch again! When I crossed the finish line I was gasping for breath, but feeling great. My time was 34:41 (6:56/mile). I had run 6:34 in the last mile.

I met up with a bunch of other Flyer men, and we cheered on the women. Then we all met for a post race hang with bagels and a club photo. I saw nyflygirl, who introduced me to runner26, which was great since I'm a regular reader of her blog. I'd been reading about her recovery from injury, so it was great to see her out at the races! Trakmaniac was there, running fast as always, despite only two hours sleep due to a canceled flight home the previous night.

There were tons of Flyers there, including a number that didn't run. FA was there, with her two very cute kids. Madam President was also in attendance, not running, but gearing up for the big softball game against the Central Park Track Club. Unfortunately, I had to skip the game to go to a dentist appointment. That is a much less pleasant story that I will spare you.

Have a great weekend everyone!