Saturday, May 16, 2009

Healthy Kidney 10K Race Report

Wow, what an odd race. First, its the same 6 mile loop as the Scotland Run last month - start on the west side at 62d, run the loop, and finish on about 68th street. The weather was misty, foggy and mild (in 60's I am guessing). The tops of the buildings around Central Park were shrouded in fog.
I picked up my number, and it was in the 3000's. What the heck ? I have finished recent races in top 1500 or so and yet my number keeps getting bigger -- thus I keep moving back in the corrals. That means a slower race group, more people to dodge, and harder to get a fast pace. Not a good sign for a PR. I was shooting for 7:30 miles.
Right as we started, I felt a couple of rain drops. By the end of the first mile, a full fledged downpour. Not as constant as Scotland run, but this was much harder rain. Mile 1 was good 7:27. Mile 2 is uphill
and in middle of driving rain, 7:01. Wow - that's the fastest mile I've ever run in a race, and my heart rate shows it - average 172 Better slow down. Mile 2-3 is down Harlem Hill to East side. Easiest mile in the race. 7:04, but average HR 174. Just as in the Scotland Run, my Garmin had the course mile marker for the third mile as significantly too long -- by about 30 yards or so. (My split time is on Garmin, not the course, so it is the true mile per Garmin. As per the course, I bet my third mile was 7:25 or so.) Also ran through the 5K split in about 24 minutes (gun time, and my net time was about 1:30 behind gun), so I am on pace for sub 47:00 or so. But Mile 3 to 4 is the hard one. Up two big hills, and I did it in 7:55. But I feel bad. Really bad, and my HR is up to 178, which is 94% of max. Uh oh.

Now, though, all I gotta do is cruise home with 7:30 miles and I have my 47 minute goal time. It had stopped raining, but my glasses are completely fogged up - despite my rigorous application of Speedo no fogger last night. (I am going to write another review of anti fogger potions. In sum, none have worked for me.) Mile 5 was hard. 7:31, with average HR 178. In Mile 6, I really slowed down 8:18, average HR 174. Goodbye 47 minute time. The stub mile of 0.32 miles was 2:32 (7:56 pace), average HR 178. Final time: 47:45. Garmin had run at 6.32 miles for average pace of 7:33 per mile. I wanted to average 7:30, so not bad, and definitely a fast time for me. Nearly 2 minutes faster than my time in the Scotland Run, which was a month earlier.

Well, I just looked up my Final Age Graded Time as per NYRR: 59.9. I barely missed my goal of 60! I am sure though if you add in the extra distance I ran (the 6.32 vs. 6.2 miles NYRR has the race), I had a 60. But that doesn't count. And I will have to look up what 6.32 miles at 47:45 produces for a VDOT and predicted marathon time.
Definite progress, and first time I have pushed myself that hard.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for the kind words! I definitely appreciated it. I was beating myself up today for missing the race until I realized there's just no point. Tomorrow's a brand new day to lace up my sneakers and train for the next race.

    Anyway, reading your post, I got to experience the Healthy Kidney 10K vicariously through you. Your pace is fantastic! I'm only 26, and my pace is 11:30, but it gets faster slowly but surely. I used to weigh 65 pounds more than I do now and couldn't even run a half mile without stopping, so training for these races have been a big deal to me.

    Thank you again for your encouragement, and yes, I will be at the Dash & Splash on the 13th! Can't wait for it :o)

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  2. Congrats on your race. So much of that 10K in Central Park is about pacing. Run too fast in the first 3 miles and you die coming around Harlem Hill...it's so tricky! Plus, the rain didn't really help either.

    Great job out there today. Not an easy race by any means.

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  3. Congratulations on your run! I saw your 5K split posted and thought "Damn...." I knew where your race report would likely go.

    I fell way short of my goal (though still a PB) - legs were dead even before the start, I never really felt I could push them the way I wanted. I'm happy I still got a personal best (even if way short of where my training should now allow), since the Seattle Marathon is the goal here, and I ran a 20-miler Mon, speed on Tues, and tempo Wed. The 8:11 first mile, with way too many slow runners in the way (I don't know how much faster I could have gone), pretty much killed my hope of a fast 10K, given how my legs felt. On the positive side, I negative split the 5Ks by about 20 seconds. However, my working theory is that negative splitting is the best way to assure a less than optimal race for me - that is, that I didn't push hard enough at the start. My fastest miles (in order) were 5, 6, and 2. Alas.

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