Time: 33 Minutes 28 Seconds
Distance: 4 Miles
Location: Central Park (NYRR Gridiron Classic)
Last year I ran my first race, the NYRR Gridiron Classic, for a distance of 4 miles in 38:50 (a 9:42 per mile pace). Today, I ran my second NYRR Gridiron Classic in 33:28 (a 8:22 per mile pace). In one year full of injuries, shortcomings, and bouts of laziness, I'm actually surprised that I've managed to kill a whole minute off my short distance pace times. Not that they really matter in the grand scheme of things; I mean what is 4 miles next to 26? I'm not trying to kid myself into believing that I'll be able to run that same 8:22 on Marathon day. But most importantly, it is motivation on the possibilities of improvement.
Just about this time last year, I had never even considered running 8 more races to quality for guaranteed Marathon entry. Hell last year, I even remember standing in the cold before the race began, wearing my amateur makeshift "running clothes"; anxious and freezing my ass off, wondering how in the world I was even going to finish when I'd never run outdoors, or on hills, or while freezing to death. Less than 40 minutes later, it was all over; and I was hooked.
Today's run was cool! And by cool, I mean coooool. It was amazing too! But mostly cooooooooool. A comment was made by Mary Wittenberg during open announcements, that she could litter ally see the mist from our body heat rising from the crowd (yeah, thats not so cool...). Not that it's new to me, but after not running hills for so long, the course was actually kind of tough to keep pace. I opted out of wearing the heart rate monitor today because I wanted a good time, so it probably didn't have to be as tough had I worn it, but being back out in that race environment got me thinking: "I'm back, bitches! And I'm coming after your Marathon this year, so bring on as many hills as you've got!" as I charged as fast as I could to the finish line.
Post Race: Not a single ache, or a single pain. My knees were completely fine? I don't know why, but I'm not going to question it. I said I wouldn't use school as an excuse not to run, so I won't. I went a whole week without running up until this morning, but I will get back to my 3x a week schedule starting with today. That's a promise, I'm determined to keep.
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