MOTHER'S DAY 4M RACE DETAILS

NYJL 4M Mother's Day

Distance: 4.0 Miles
Date/Time: May 11, 2008, 8:00 am
Location: Central Park, NYC
Weather: 50 deg., 80% humidity, wind 7 mph.

The official stats from the website:http://web2.nyrrc.org/cgi-bin/htmlos.exe/20152.1.590694296000014991

Bib # 5053
Gender/age: F43

Distance (miles): 4.0

Finish Time: 33:29

Pace Time: 8:22

Overall Place: 1090 (out of 3,319 people)

Gender Place: 263 (out of 1,756)

Age Place: 30th (out of 213 women ages 40-44)

AG Time: 31:36 (don't know what this means??)
AG Gender place: 228

Age-Graded%: 60.8%

Fantastic race. Weather could not have been better. 50 degrees, blue skies and sunny. Woke at 4:30 am, had my oatmeal and banana, and hopped in the car and met Johnny at about 6am and we drove into NYC together. This time I drove. We arrived around 6:30 (race started at 8am). We found a perfect parking spot (FREE), and walked into the Park, and got our bibs and t-shirts. Yeah, my bib reflected the faster corral time of 8:35 pace. I was VERY excited. I was really looking forward to running this race with no cluster/jam at the start:) It was just great. Weather was perfect. Hit the porto potties, stretched, and then met up with John B., Ronnie & Billy (his wife Liz was there again to cheer us on:) Tommy L was supposed to run it, but he was home sick with a fever. We missed you bro and can't wait to have you out there with us next time!!

We got ourselves over to the start about 15 minutes early this time, and got ourselves to the front of the corral. It was awesome. The race started and we were off. There was no congestion at all this time:) I hit the first mile marker at 8:30, my heartrate was beating and I was huffing and puffing. I was a little concerned I went out too fast and wouldn't be able to finish, or hit my goal time of 33:30. I set my Garmin's Virtual Partner (a.k.a. George) to finish the race in 33:30. This first mile had a hill in it and this time I felt it and thought I was going to die. My heartrate even hit 199 (or at least that is what my Garmin said. Not sure if it was a spike, but man I was feeling it, so I tend to think I finally hit my MAX:) I settled in and continued on.

My mile splits were as follows:

Mile 1 - 8:30 pace AVG HR: 175 Cardiac Drift: 199 bpm (which I think is my new MAX)
Mile 2 - 8:28 pace AVG HR: 166 Cardiac Drift: 172bpm
Mile 3 - 8:17 pace AVG HR: 170 Cardiac Drift: 175bpm
Mile 4 - 8:14 pace AVG HR: 171 Cardiac Drift: 180bpm

AVG HR 170 - MAX HR 199

So, once again I am thrilled!! I used my Garmin's Vertual Partner (a.k.a. George) during the race for the first time. Set it to beat 33:30, and beat it by 1 second. LOL, boy what a great motivator, but I still need to figure out how to see the different menus, ie: HR, pace, zones, etc more comfortably. I ended up just looking at the race part to make sure I was ahead and just ran. Though that was great. It was strange not seeing the data during the race. Ok, I'm a data geek, and though it felt wierd, I did just run this race, and I beat my previous race time (34:21), I crossed the finish line today in 33:29, with an average pace of 8:22. So, I got a PR and my training is going as planned:)!!!!! I love how my first 3 races have been on the identical 4Mile course. I have been able to improve each race:)

After the race I had a little charlie horse in my left hamstring, but was able to stretch it out for the car ride home thank goodness. Once home I jumped in my first ice bath (Brrrrr....), and though it was cold, it felt GREAT!!!! Next race is in 6 days, the Healthy Kidney 10K. Haven't run that distance in 2 1/2 years, so should be interesting, but so far the racing is going as planned. Not sure what I will do this week for training. I will have to evaluate it day by day, based on how I am feeling. But so far today I feel awesome, no real aches and pains.

But the plan right now is:

Monday - Off

Tuesday - Very easy 3-4 miles

Wednesday - Off

Thursday - Very easy 3-4 miles

Friday - Off

Saturday - race day