This was my first time to try the mile! I’d really been looking forward to this race, as I am more of a speed-oriented runner than a long distance one. After running a 22:53 5k five weeks ago, I decided that a 6:40 mile would be a good solid goal to shoot for; not out of reach, but not a given either. As per the advice of the folks here, I focused on 400s at goal pace. I did a time trial a week ago and got 6:53, and it was godawful by the end; every part of me hurt. But during my final speedwork session earlier this week, I did notice that the 6:40 pace was feeling a bit easier. Not easy, but just a little more relaxed than it had been, and I felt pretty encouraged.

The race was on Saturday night - two loops around some city blocks, and I got to watch a lot of heats before my turn came up. I studied the people in the heats before mine, especially the guys and girls that were in the lead in the really fast heats, and noticed how controlled they looked throughout, as opposed to the people who were coming in to the finish looking like they were about to die. I reminded myself again not to go out too fast!

There were apparently ~300 people signed up, and for those aged 39 and under, the heats were organized by projected finish time. I had seeded myself in the sub-7 group, and there were probably 30 or so people (both guys and girls) in my heat. I was terrified as my heat was approaching! Like, I was actually shaking. Sounds funny, since you know you can finish a mile race, but I knew it was going to be really painful by the end, and I guess just the overall unfamiliarity of the distance was getting to me. I have *never* felt so jittery before a race before, and I figured I’d be fine once we got going, but the waiting was just terrible.

Finally we were off, and I pretty quickly found myself in the back of the pack. For a brief moment I thought “oh god, what if I finish last in my heat?”. Then I shook that thought off and concentrated on locking into my desired pace. In fact, I started passing people almost immediately (first quarter of the race or so). My watch beeped and I looked: 1:38 for the first 400m. Oops, a touch fast, so I tried to slow down *just a little*. My absolute biggest fear for this race was blowing up and having a dramatic slowdown, and I wanted to avoid that at all costs. I missed the second quarter split on my watch, but as I passed the finish line after the first lap the clock there said 3:21 (I think), so I was right about on pace. (It turns out my second 400m split was 1:42, so yes, right on time). And I was feeling all right; the pace was fast but pretty controlled. I felt pretty good in the third quarter too, but when my watch beeped, I saw 1:46 and was really annoyed. 6 seconds off pace is a lot for a 400m split. But on the plus side, I really was feeling a lot better than I expected to (probably because the pace had slowed!), so I felt that I could, and would, pull off a strong last quarter. I quickened my pace for the last quarter and concentrated on holding it. I am not much of a kicker; I normally have nothing left by the finish and am gasping and flailing trying to hold my pace. Not this time. This time I summoned a monster kick and crushed the last ~100m or so. I could see the finish clock and I could tell I was going to be really close to my desired 6:40. I crossed the line at right about 6:40 but was not sure if I clocked 6:40 or not.

It was all over so fast! It was night-and-day difference compared to my time trial – so much smoother and less painful! My watch showed 1:35 for the last 0.39km (total of 1.59 km) –whoa! And 6:41 total. (I finally found out my official time today, Sunday afternoon – 6:39.25!) And then the weirdest thing happened: my throat felt like it was on fire and I started coughing like crazy. I have never had that happen after a 5k or any other race. I would have been concerned about it except for the fact that it was happening to EVERYBODY! It was actually kind of hilarious. I was trying to talk to others who had been in my heat and nobody could get more than a couple words out before succumbing to a loud raspy cough. And weirdly, the race did not have any water available afterwards, so we just had to suffer. So bizarre to go from fine to such a massively sore throat in an instant. Our pollen count was listed as “very high” this evening, so maybe that’s what it was. Even at my late dinner 2 hours later I was still coughing quite a bit.

So, that was it! I had a blast at this race. I felt good enough at the end that I think I maybe could have run a slightly faster time overall, but who knows. Maybe I will look for another mile race for later in the summer. I have no other races/goals for the year other than to get PRs a 5k race in October and an 8k in November. I think I’m going to keep speedwork to a minimum for the rest of June and focus on getting comfortable with a new, slightly higher average # of miles per week. Then for the rest of the summer I’ll grind away at speedwork, and we’ll see what’s what in the fall.

Thanks for reading and for the helpful training advice!

Thanks George!  It was so much fun.  I really like the shorter, faster distances.  This was a different mindset; even with a 5k I'm thinking in terms of mile splits, but I had to change my reference frame for this.  In my time trial I had more or less the same pattern in my splits: middle two slower, first and last the fastest.  Not sure how much a few seconds over or under really matter compared to the overall time. ??

Awesome!  Great time!

Congrats! I ran my first mile race yesterday as well. I had a bit of a sore throat after too!

Ooh it seems kind of mean to host a mile race in June without providing any water! Great job, great report!

Great job!

That sounds terrible but fun.

Action shot!  This was about halfway through the loop.  In other words, either about 400m or 1200m in.  Not sure:

Your tongue is not dragging on the ground, so my guess is 400.