A Weekend to Run

I celebrated the great weather this weekend by doing a 10 mile run, a 4 mile "Fun Run" and a 4 mile race. Good times.

On Saturday, I met up with some of the AM Flyers who were planning various long runs, with differing paces and distances. I ended falling into pace with KD, who was out for a 12-14 mile run. The conversation was entertaining and the miles went by quickly. I cut off after 10 miles to head to the start of the Concern For Hunger charity Fun Run. 

There was a strong Flyer turnout for the charity run, and it was fun to catch 

up with some folks that I hadn't seen for a while.  

Not surprisingly, the run itself had a very different feeling than an NYRR race. The number of runners was smaller, of course, and there didn't appear to be any tracking of results. It was fun to run in a less crowded, and less competitive field, but it was sparse enough that there were a lot of non racers in the same lane as us. Probably, some of the folks out for a run didn't know that there was a race going on. 

I ran semi-aggressively, and was happy that after my 10 mile "warm-up" I was able to keep a sub 7 minute pace.

My favorite part of the run was the finish. The Concern for Hunger volunteers were out in force cheering for the runners. I took the opportunity to cheer back, and collected tons of high-fives while kicking to the finish.  

This morning was the Run As One 4 miler. I wasn't  sure how I was going to feel after putting in 14 miles yesterday. I had also suffered a weird stomach thing the night before. Once I  got going though, I felt strong, so I gave it the full press.

My splits reflected the hills - 1 mile up - 6:44, 1 down - 6:33, 1 up - 6:44, 1 down - 6:22. In the finish line chute, Flyer AW introduced herself. We had been swapping places toward the end, but because she wasn't wearing any Flyer gear, I hadn't realized that she was a teammate. She ended with the faster time (next time, AW!), and an age group award to go with it. 

I also ran into jb24, who finished with a huge PR. He has been on fire lately.

My official time was 26:24 (6:36 pace) - just 5 seconds behind my 4 mile PR (26:19). I'm quite happy with that. My plan is to do a couple of weeks of good training, and then get a little rest to shoot for a PR with fresh legs.