RACE: Long Training Run #1

Where : Central Park
When : Sunday, July 12, 2009 @ 7am
What: 20 Miles

With a very active week behind me, including a long bike ride yesterday, my friend and I woke up and were late for our race (which was really a training run as nothing was being scored). The morning was one error filled comedy, as I realized that I could not find my number anywhere and had to get another one. The number you see above was not the one I ran with. Hence, I finally found this number, and yes, it was left in my office from over a week before. LOL.

We started about 20 minutes late. Even at a 10 minute pace, we were already 2 miles behind. The race started near my friend's apartment at 102nd and East Drive, so we immediately cut west along the transverse to the west side eliminating about a mile from the course, and getting back about 10 minutes in the process. It still was not enough, so we cut back east across the 65th street transverse, cutting off another mile. However, instead of 20, we were now looking at doing 18 miles the most.

My friend, who is an excellent cyclist, but admittedly not as fast as I, begged for me not to keep pace and to run ahead. After much nudging, I obliged and finally sped up to my normal pace of around 8-9 minutes per mile.

The first loop was supposed to have been 6 miles, follwed by another 5, and another 5, and a 4 miler to make a total of 20. Instead, my first loop was only 4 miles. However, I decided to do loop 3 as a full 6 mile loop and loop 4 as a 5 mile loop. In each of those loops I eliminated a transverse.

After a slow start, I was fairly impressed with the final. 3 hours, 6 minutes, or a pace of 9:18. Only off by 9 seconds from a sub-4, and it was not the nicest weather outside either (slight rainy, and very humid-balmy).