Cowboy Hazel

I finally broke the five minute mark for a mile yesterday at the Fifth Avenue Mile, running a 4:58. That's a seven second P.R. for me and was completely unexpected. I'd only done one speedwork session all summer in Colorado and although I'd gotten in a couple quality workouts in Pennsylvania, I didn't think it would be enough. Looking back on it, I think there have been times that I've been in better shape, but I just ran my smartest mile yesterday. I didn't get caught up in the rush at the beginning of the race and I still felt really strong at the half, ready to speed up and start reeling people in rather than fading.

After our races, we ran into Paul and chatted for with him and a couple new Warren Streeters for a while, then jogged back uptown to shower and change into clean clothes before returning to see the elites run. We saw Joe and chatted with him for a while, then found a spot to watch the women's race. Unfortunately we were a little too far back to see Jenny Simpson's kick well, but we could make out that she had pulled ahead and won. We decided to move closer to the finish for the men's race and, while waiting there, I spotted Jenny off to our right and snapped some photos of her talking on her cell phone. I'm not a stalker, I swear. The men's race was very exciting and I was very happy to see that Bernard Legat finally won. An amazing 15 guys finished under four minutes, which completely amazes me. I saw Daniel and Brenn somewhere in there too and chatted for a bit. It was fun being back in New York and seeing so many familiar faces.

The rest of yesterday involved much more walking around than I usually enjoy and even a little rowing – we rented a boat in Central Park – so I wasn't sure what to expect from my body this morning on my long run. Helen and I met Antonio at 9:00 up here in East Harlem and then started down running down the East River. Helen stuck with us for five miles then ran home, Antonio and I continued down around the tip of Manhattan and back up the Hudson. We cut back through Central Park and ended up running 19.2 miles, more than our planned 18, because of a lack of mapping. Oh well. That last mile in the park ended up being a 6:33! There was a dude that passed us and we decided not to let that happen and ended up in a little duel with him. I definitely miss that competitiveness about Central Park. Our average pace was 7:17/mile, but that was skewed by a fairly slow start. We were right around 7:00/mile the whole second half of the run, a huge confidence booster.

I'm feeling good now and enjoying a bit of rest before heading out to the bar to watch the Jets take on the Raiders. Not a bad weekend…



Note: I've started blogging for the Runner's World Challenge so that will probably take up much of what little creativity I have and so I'll probably be writing less here in the months to come. If you've signed up for the Challenge, be sure to check out my blog over there.