Percy Sutton Harlem 5K

Today was the Percy Sutton Harlem 5K, a race run by the NYRR, but not in their home stomping grounds of Central Park. I was my second chance at hitting my 2010 goal of running a sub 19 minute 5K.

Having just run a 19:06 in Maine, the goal seemed within reach, but I didn't know the Harlem course, so it was hard to predict what might happen.

It turned out to be a beautiful morning -- the weather has been brutal in NYC this summer, and this morning was a welcome break. I jogged the 2.3 miles up to the start where I met up with MC. The start area was really nice. We hung out in St. Nicholas Park until it was time to enter the corrals. There, we met up with DK, completing the Fearsome 3 (OK, I just made that up, but it's sure to catch on). We also saw JEF (no, not Jeff, J.E.F), one of my Flyer idols.

The pre-race announcements went on longer than usual, and I started to get antsy. Then, when the starter asked "do we have clearance on the roadway?!", the answer came back "no!". That was a first for me. The delay wound my springs up some more, and when the horn finally sounded, I took off like a lunatic. I flew by JEF (a sign of very bad judgement) in the first few hundred yards. I knew it wasn't right, but there was no stopping it.

After a half mile, we hit the one big uphill in the course, and it was a steep one. I hit mile one at the top of the hill in 6:10. I would have to pick it up from there, but there was only flat and downhill ahead.

Mile two took me 6:18, which surprised me a bit, since it was flat, and I didn't feel like I had slowed down. Then came a big downhill and the sprint to the finish. I did mile 3 in 5:59 -- it wasn't looking good for breaking 19 minutes.

In the end, I had a 19.05 -- a one second PR. It still blows my mind that on a completely different course, a different day, different... whatever, I race for 5K within a SECOND of my last time. How does that happen?

DK, MC and I jogged home together, and MC pointed out buildings in Harlem that he had been looking at. They looked really nice. Just a few minutes jog to Central Park, in what looked like an up and coming neighborhood.

When I got home and checked the official results, I saw that I was 3rd in my age group, and on the awards page, it listed me as 2nd (!). The reason appears to be that the fastest guy in my age group finished 2 overall, so they aren't giving him the age group award as well.

So, on one hand it's really exciting to place in an NYRR race for the first time, but at the same time, it's really humbling to look at this 2nd place overall finish. This is a 45 year old guy, running a 5K at a sub 5 minute/mile pace. That is crazy. His AG% is 92.5. So much for me claiming to be "fast for an old guy".

As for the sub 19 goal, the NYRR only has one more 5K on the calendar, the December 11 NYRR Holiday Run in Brooklyn. That's cutting it a little close...

Team Championships

Yesterday was the annual NYRR Team Championships race. It's a race I don't usually make, as it falls on a weekend when I'm out of town. This year however, we came back a few days early and I was able to run.

The event is limited to runners who are members of the local competitive clubs, and double points are awarded toward the club points standings. I've mentioned before on this blog the difference in the competition at points races vs non-points races, but this uberpointsrace is the toughest of them all.

In pretty much any other NYRR race I'm assigned to the first starting corral with the fastest runners, but in this race I was in the fourth corral. No doubt about it, when everybody shows up, there are a lot of fast runners in this town.

Although my PR for this distance (5 miles) was just 6 weeks old, I felt that I had a shot at it, as I've been getting faster, and the weather was a bit cooler than it had been in June.

The first mile of the course covered all of the rolling West Side Hills, and it was hard to judge how I was doing. I seemed to be passing a lot, which could be good or bad. I decided to assume good. Then fellow Flyer Crazy B came up from behind (?) and passed me. I wasn't quite sure what to make of that, as I would have expected him to be way out in front by then. Was I going out too fast? Or was he starting cautiously?

I hit the mile one mark at 6:18, which felt like good news. That gave me a 12 second buffer on PR pace, with one of the toughest miles behind me.

I decided to hold effort or even ease off a bit, and see how the second, downhill mile would turn out. I came in at 6:24 -- slower, but still increasing the buffer to 18 seconds. My time slipped again for mile 3 to 6:30 (PR pace), and I was feeling tired. The relatively cool morning was starting to heat up, at least for me, and although I wasn't hurting much physically, my mental stamina was slipping.

I started making deals with myself to keep going. This is what I do when my fortitude starts to go. I felt an obligation to run my best for the team, but let's be reasonable -- I mean, just exactly how fast did I have to go? Surely, they couldn't expect much more than my fastest 5 miles ever? So, if I could hang on to the PR, that would do. No need to go crazy. Just don't use up the whole buffer you've built up.

Of course the whole exercise was absurd, because the Flyers only expectation was that I have a good time and hang out for the team photo, but the deal making was keeping me going so I went with it.

Amazingly, I got through the Cat Hill mile in 6:37 -- still ahead of PR pace, and with nothing but downhill to the finish. After a thousand Cat Hill repeats (give or take) with the 6AM group, Cat Hill is just not the obstacle it used to be.

I continued to conserve however, knowing that I would want to have something left for the finish. Because the men and women race separately in this event, there is a great cheering section at the end of the course, with each club yelling for their teammates. I went through the gauntlet feeling good, and finished strong (6:23 for mile 5).

That left me with a PR of 32:13 (6:26/mile), 10th place amongst the Flyer men -- the last scoring position in the open class.

Afterward, my family showed up, and we watched the women race and then enjoyed the Flyer picnic and team photo. Good times.

One footnote: Crazy B finished over a minute ahead of me, as I would expect. Apparently, he just wasn't going with my "strategy" of start fast and painfully, gradually slow down each mile ;-)

On a Roll

Yesterday I ran the Run for the Sun 5K in Brunswick, Maine. It was small race -- just over 200 runners -- with a really good vibe. The course was mostly flat -- an out and back with just one hill, going down at around the 3/4 mile mark, and back up on the return with less than a mile to go.

In the first mile, a lead pack pulled ahead, followed (not closely) by one older (my age) guy, and then me. I felt that I was running well, with a sustainable effort level. I was very surprised, therefore, at the one mile mark, to hear a course worker calling splits "5:40! 5:42!" and as I approached "5:45!"

I was almost laughing, thinking that these small town folks probably couldn't tell a mile from a kilometer, when my Garmin beeped -- 5:45. The fastest mile I've ever run. My mile PR is 5:52. OK, that is from 2008, but still. My 5K PR pace was 6:26.

I had no idea what was going on. My best guess was that mile 1 was a lot more downhill than I had realized. I decided to just maintain effort, and see what happened.

After the turn around at the halfway point, folks started to pass me. I still felt that I was running well, so I wasn't too worried about it. I did, however, notice three guys go by me that looked like they could be in my age group, which was a little disappointing, as I had secret hopes of an age group award.

Mile 2 passed in 6:17, quite a bit slower, but more in line with what I was expecting to begin with. Soon after that, came the one tough uphill in the course. It was really two uphills, separated by a short plateau. As we approached the hills I notice that I was gaining on the folks that had passed me earlier. On the hills, I picked them off one by one, including the guy that had been ahead of me the whole time. As far as I could tell, I was the first runner over 40. In fact, since the lead pack (now long gone) had looked like a bunch of kids to me, I thought I might the the first runner over 30 (I was apparently delirious). Mile 3 passed in 6:18.

All I had to do was hold my place to the end. I felt that I could keep running hard, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to hold off anyone who had a real finish line kick. And... there was a runner on my heels. He was lining me up for a finish line pass -- I could feel it. As we approached the finish, I pushed as hard as I could, but the footsteps were right behind me the whole way. Miraculously, he never made the pass, and finished right behind me.

My final time was 19:06 (6:09/mile) -- a 51 sec PR -- 17 seconds a mile. Moreover, it put my most ambitious goal for 2010, a sub-19 5K, within reach. I was feeling really good.

Of course, my age-guessing skills were not as strong as I thought. There were two runners over 30 in the lead pack, one of whom finished second, in 15:47. And there was one 42 year old who finished 4 seconds in front of me. I can't believe that I didn't notice him.

That still got me a 2nd place age group medal -- the first hardware other than a finisher's medal that I've ever taken home. Yes, it was a small race, but I'll take it.

The guy that finished right behind me was, in fact, in my age group, meaning that the 3 top runners in our group finished within 5 seconds of each other - 19:02, 19:06 and 19:07.

When the awards were given out, I was amazed by how young the winner in my age group looked. Also, one of the guys who I passed in the last mile, won the 50-59 age group. I had him pegged at 40.

My take-away is that fast guys look younger than they are. All the more reason to keep training....

Bringin' the Heat

Today's 4 miler was a club points race, which meant that the fast runners were out. It was also 82 degrees at 9AM when the race started, which suggested that we would all be slower than usual.
The NYRR announcers in the staging area and at the start must have said "today is not the day for a PR" 20 times. Bah Humbug. I had done 27x200 with the 6AM group on Tuesday, and I was feeling fast.
I went out at a pace that felt reasonably conservative, and was happy to hit mile 1 at 6:16 -- 9 seconds ahead of PR pace.
Mile 2: 6:18
Mile 3: 6:31
Mile 4: 6:18

I ended up with a 22 second PR.
Official results:

25:26 (6:21/mile) - 75.1% AG.

I was 13th place in my age group, which is the best I've done in a points race. I also scored for the Flyer in the open and masters classes.

I was really pumped to PR in this tough heat. I'm hoping that when the weather cools, there will be more speed to come. According to the Runworks calculator, my race was the equivalent of a 6:09 pace in ideal temps. That seems pretty generous, but I do think I can step it up when the temps cool.

In the mean time, I've taken action to cool things down by driving to Maine. I'll be training up here for the next three weeks. Hopefully, this crazy heat will have passed by the time I get back!

Denied!

Well, the mystery is solved - I placed 4th in my age group for last week's race. Due to a glitch in the results, it looked like I might have been 3rd, which would have been my first age group award, but alas, it was not to be. The NYRR fixed the error, and it didn't play in my favor.

To be honest, it wasn't really a fast enough run to justify an award anyway. The three guys ahead of me were pretty far ahead.

That said, I'm getting closer. In 2010, I've been in the top 10 of my age group in 4 NYRR races, including the 4th last week, and a 5th in a 4 miler in May. In January, my chances will get much better, since I move up an age group. That won't stop me from trying in the mean time though.

Thanks to the folks who offered congrats -- don't worry, I'll get there!

Dare to Dream?

On Thursday, I ran a cross-country 2x2 mile relay in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. For years, I've been wanting to run one of the summer 5Ks that the VCTC puts on there. It was my 6AM training partner JH that finally got me there. He wanted a partner for the relay, and we made a natural team.

After we signed up we looked at our bibs, and tried to decipher the "M91" that was written on them. Finally, we figured out that 91 was our combined ages. Yikes.

I went first, not really knowing what to expect. It was my first off road race. I was told that there was only one hill, and my leg was only 2 miles, so how hard could it be?

Well, the hill was a country hill, not a wave in the road like I'm familiar with. On the way up, my quads were burning but I passed three people -- one guy about my age, and the two lead women. On the way down, they all passed me back. It was so steep going down, that I thought I was going to go head over heels at any moment. At the end of my leg, I felt like I was finishing strong, and I really liked the "high five" that I gave JH to send him on his way -- it was much more satisfying than an awkward baton pass. That's the way they roll in the Bronx.

JH ran well, and finished with an impressive kick. It was great to see him come in.

Flyers SS and RG (above) took second in the over 100 combined age group. The winning team had a combined age of 32. I guess there was no post race beer for them...

Today was the Dash and Splash 10K, which I targeted as an early attempt at my 2010 goal -- weather permitting. Well, weather was definitely NOT permitting. After the race, my iPhone told me it was 80 degrees. At mile 4, it seemed like 90.

Still, I put out a "good effort" and finished with a 6:40/mile pace. Since the weather scared away a lot of the faster (sissy) runners, I placed higher than usual. When I checked the results, I was 4th in my age group, but FA emailed me saying that the awards page had me at 3rd. I checked again, and saw that indeed I was the 3rd runner listed, but for some reason the fastest guy was labeled as 2nd place, pushing the rest of us back one place. There was no 1st place runner listed.

So did I place 3rd, and win my first ever age group award? We'll have to wait and see. Stay tuned, to find out!

60 Mile Week, and The Plan

This week, I ran my first 60 mile week. My longest run was only 13.5, but I ran 6 days, averaging 10 miles per run. Breaking 60 was not a goal, but ramping up the mileage with medium, rather than long runs was a goal. I just checked my log and I found that in the last year I've run 18 weeks with mileage over 50. I've even had a couple of 59 mile weeks, so this was not completely out of the blue.

By the way, I log my runs using the free online tool at RunningAhead.com. This tool makes it easy to look back and get info like this. I highly recommend it.

Time to set my next target races...

My remaining goals for 2010 are 5K and 10K times.

This weekend is the NYRR Dash & Splash, a 10K in the park, and the timing is right for an early try at the 10K goal, which is to break 40 minutes. It is a stretch, but given perfect weather, I think that I would have an outside chance. Unfortunately, perfect weather does not appear to be what is coming. Current predictions are for hot, hot, hot.

Just the same, I'd like to get closer to the mark, so that the next time a 10K comes around, it seems within striking distance.

For the 5K, I will make my first attempt at the 2010 goal at the Harlem 5K Run in August. I haven't run this one before, but I'm hoping for a flat course. I'll need one.