Redemption

This morning was the Gridiron Classic 4 mile race in Central Park. I had promised to pick up numbers for myself and my friend Peter, and meet him near the start.

Now why, you ask, would I make such a ridiculous promise for the morning after the Flyer's Gala? Well, to be honest, only because I didn't look at my calendar. I planned to jog over to the NYRR office, pick up the numbers, and jog down to the start, but when the alarm went off this morning, I had to question my plan. Perhaps I could take a taxi to the NYRR office, another taxi to the start, give Peter his number, and go back home to sleep a few more hours.

After I dragged my ass out of bed, I started to feel better, so I started off on my jog, with enough money in my pocket to revert to the cab plan if needed. Once I got running, I felt still better. By the time I met up with Peter, I felt ready to race.

At the start, we were told that we would have a lane and a half to run in for most of the race. In the past, the NYRR tried to squeeze the field into the rec lane as soon as they could. The result was that tons of runners strayed outside of the official course. Today's setup worked beautifully. It was tight for the first mile or less, and from then on it was wide open. I didn't see a single runner stray outside of the boundaries.

I started out with a 6:59 mile -- respectable, but I would have to pick it up to PR. When my second mile was 6:28, I realized I had a shot. I hung on over the West Side hills for a 6:50 third mile. A PR was still possible, but only if I smoked the last mile. The set up was right -- the last mile was mostly downhill, and I wasn't too tired. I also had a little extra motivation. Last night I was given an award for "Most Improved" runner, based on some questionable data. It would be great to put together a good run the next morning. Also, my best AG% was 69.8, and I was dying to break 70%.

I gave it everything I had and ran the last mile in 6:17. In the end, I PRed with at 36:35 (6:38 pace) with an 70.7 AG%. OK, it wasn't 72.2, but breaking the 70% mark was a big goal for me, so I'm pretty happy.

All in all, a good weekend. Cheers.