tl;dr -- it sucked beyond belief but I did finally get my sub-1:40

VERY LONG VERSION:

After a miraculous race at the Bronx 10 Mile two weeks ago, one which predicted a 1:38:17 HM, I decided that it was ridiculous for me to postpone that sub-1:40.  I mean, I’ve only been trying to break that barrier for two years!  My first attempt was a disaster; my second at least yielded a PR.  So yeah, I only really tried twice, but it’s still an awfully long time to wait.

This is why I decided to go for it today, and brought out the Magic Shoes (PureConnect Nightlife, which I’ve worn for every single one of my HM PRs).  Even though whatever I did to my calf in the Bronx is still annoying me (but at least that goes away after a couple of miles), and my heel randomly decided to hurt last week, and my calves were so tight and sore on Friday and Saturday for no reason at all.

The soreness was mostly gone this morning.  That’s pretty much where the “my body feels fabulous!” ended.

I met Dahlia outside the terminal in time to catch the 7:30 ferry.  The line for the restrooms there was ridiculously long, so I decided to wait.  And wait.  And wait.  And wait, because the lines at the terminal on Staten Island were also long, and at Richmond County Bank Ballpark (race day central).  We checked our bags and went to the corrals; each one had its own porta potties.  I’ve actually always wanted them to do that — but the line took forever to move.  No warmup for me, I guess.

The course wasn’t exactly the same as last year — they’re building the world’s biggest ferris wheel in the lot where the race used to start, or something.  All I really remembered of the course, since the race was a total suckfest for me, is that there was a monster hill at mile 9.  Unfortunately, that was not exactly eliminated.  Even more unfortunately, what replaced it was worse.

It doesn’t look so evil, but trust me when I say that it was.  Since I ran 13.25 miles by my watch last year, I expected a similar distance this year, and wanted to keep my pace around 7:30 to be safe.  I went out a little faster than that.  Not because it felt so great, which is what happened in the Bronx, but because I knew that hill would slow me down.

I am so, so, so glad I did that.  Because it wasn’t just that one hill.  There was a series of them.  I mean, it might have been aesthetically pleasing to run on the boardwalk and around Fort Wadsworth, but I’m not someone who really cares about pretty scenery during a race, and I very much dislike running on boardwalks — too many slats on which to trip, and looking down to avoid that is somewhat dizzying.  So I did not appreciate this course change.  At all.

And my heel really freaking hurt.  It started to whimper about halfway through, and by the time I reached those hills, it wasn’t whimpering — it was screaming.  The “if I run x pace from here, I’ll still make it under my goal” thing is a lot more helpful when the pace in question is 10:00, not 8:00.

To add to the fun, I could feel a blister forming on the outside of the ball of my other foot.  Some people tend toward blisters.  I am not one of them.  I’m going to assume this happened because I was somehow altering my gait to compensate for the pain in my other foot.

Draining that was fun.

So, yeah, big positive split.  I think most people positive split, actually — the course is just not one where it’s easy to avoid that.

Meh.  Not that I had been planning to rely on the pacers per se, but there didn’t seem to be any in my corral.  The start was staggered — the first two corrals were released about a minute and a half before the next two, and so forth.  Which leads me to believe that the 1:35 pacer who passed me half a mile from the finish was in one of the corrals behind me.  How does that make any sense at all?!

According to my Garmin… 13.23 miles in 1:39:12, 7:30/mile.  Which is exactly the pace I wanted to run, so I should be thrilled.

Um, right.  That’s a little ugly.  Officially, 13.1 miles in 1:39:08, 7:34/mi.  805/8586 OA, 94/3989 F, 30/889 F30-34.

It wouldn’t be accurate to say I’m unhappy with this result.  I mean, come on:

PR by 2:43 (I think)?  Yeah, I’d be insane to complain about that.  It’s the execution that bothers me.  Because the Bronx, which predicted a faster HM than this, was such a pleasure to run, and it felt nearly effortless.  This was a huge battle all the way, and oh yeah, my foot hurts.

Did I mention it felt like a battle?  Take a look at this.

My watch did alert me immediately after the race that the HRM battery was low, but I don’t know whether that would have affected the reading.  Who the hell runs a HM at an average HR of 190?!?!

McMillan predictions will be slower than those based on the Bronx, but I want to see what they’d look like for a race that wasn’t a miracle handed to me on a silver platter…

1mi — 6:10.1
5K — 21:25 (6:53/mi)
4mi — 27:50 (6:57/mi)
5mi — 35:30 (7:06/mi)
10K — 44:28 (7:09/mi)
15K — 1:08:54 (7:23/mi)
10mi — 1:14:19 (7:26/mi)
FM — 3:28:38 (7:58/mi)

I snorted at the 5K… and then realized that my current PR is actually four seconds faster.  Ha.  And I can run a marathon at a 7.xx pace like a hole in my head.  But a lot of these don’t look so ridiculous to me.  If, you know, my foot shuts the hell up.

Sorry about your foot, but congrats on the huge PR. You have made incredible gains in speed this year. Maybe helps that you've been somewhat healthier than in some years past, but you've always got something going on. I can't imagine what you'd do if you were completely healthy. But I suppose the only way for that to happen (for any of us) is to stop running. And that will probably not help your race times.

And those splits look OK to me - slight positive, but exaggerated by two extra fast miles early on. Not like there was a blowup or anything.

Good luck in your 5k!

I guess its human nature to nit-pick our own races, but from where I'm standing that looks like fantastic race.  You fought through the pain and got a big PR.   Also finishing in the top 100 OA in a race this size is a big accomplishment.  Congrats!

That sounds to me like a great race. CONGRATULATIONS bluerun. I thought it would be a nice attention to throw in some capital letters, just for you, because I like you

Nicely done on the PR, despite the blister and assorted pains.  And that hill at mile 9-ish.  You say "it doesn't look so evil...".  Yes, yes it does.  Did you take mountaineering gear?

That picture still confuses me, even though I know its a foot.

Congrats on the PR!

Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised if you were still feeling the effect of the Bronx race a bit, even if it was kind of "under the surface", if that makes sense?  But even still, way to gut out that sub-1:40; that is very impressive! 

Awesome and congrats on earning your subscription 1:40 those goals are tough to reach but worth it.