Cowboy Hazel

This morning's run went much better than expected. I headed out to Prospect Park in Brooklyn with Antonio to run the Cherry Tree 10 Miler. On our way over, we talked about predicted finish times and I said that I just wanted to keep a 6:45 pace. His plan was to finish under 7 minute miles. Still, I joked that he would be the one finishing first – he always does.

As always, I ran the first mile way too fast. When I saw the clock at 5:51 and realized that I was almost a minute away from my target pace, I knew I was going to be in for a tough run. I slowed down some in the second mile, but still was running faster than I should have. The whole first lap was very speedy, but I knew that it wasn't a sustainable pace.

By the time we got to the big hill the second time (about 4 miles in), I was seriously slowing down and struggling to continue. It was then that Antonio caught up to me. He helped pace me for a couple miles, but finally I told him to go on, that I couldn't keep up. I had slowed considerably and didn't think I'd be able to pick it back up.

But the third and final lap brought me a much needed second wind. A runner in green shorts kept passing me, but I refused to let him stay in front. We went back and forth, changing leads probably close to thirty times in the last three miles. We both slowed a little going up the big hill, but coming back down it the last time, we were both almost at a sprint. The final mile was one of the best that I've ever put together, and I am really happy that I was able to dig that deep and finish strong (and ahead of the guy in the green shorts).

I ended up finishing in 1:04:51, a 6:29/mile pace! That was good enough to beat my old P.R. by almost 14 minutes. Of course, last time I ran a ten mile race was two years ago, I was not at all training seriously, and I had a cigarette before the start of the race... Still, big improvement today and I'm very glad to be where I'm at now instead of then.

More importantly, today's race was a fairly even split – The first half was 32:04 and second was 32:47. Considering how quickly I started, I find the fact that I was able to recover and stay that strong in the second half very promising. Of course, it would be better if I had started at an appropriate pace, but that seems to be something I am incapable of doing...

The only bad news coming out of today is that my feet are in a tremendous amount of pain, maybe even more so than after the Bronx. They were doing better during the week, but the race aggravated both issues (the big left toe and the middle of the outer part of my right foot). I'm starting to become very concerned with both of these since they've been lingering for over a month. I'm really hoping there's nothing serious going on there. I'm going to take it light the next few days and hopefully get them a chance to recover.