Ran my first one mile road race Friday evening.  This race comes just before the fall cross country season, and there are a ton of young speedsters that show up.  Despite my advancing age, in most 5K and 10K races in the area, I'll place in the top 10% or so.  Not so at this one miler -  my 6:05 (a phat old man PR by about 5 seconds) got me a 54th place out of 261 - so top 20%.  The overall winning time was 4:29, and there were a total of 9 sub 5's - including a 14 year old at 4:54, and a 54 year old at 4:55.  (Athlinks shows this guy ran a 4:44 here last year at 53 - WTF)

This was my first time running this event - and I may be back.  It's a straight shot down Main Street in Waynesville, NC.  The race is run in four heats starting at 6:30 PM and then every 20 minutes, so no problem with overcrowding.  Eleven and under run as one heat, 12 to 18 another, and separate male, female heats for 18 and up.

It starts with a slight upgrade (maybe 20 feet), a dip, another up of about 25 feet through .2 miles, then it's katy bar the door to the finish with a 120 foot decline over the next .8 mile.  Really felt good to simply open the stride up and let it fly.

My quarter splits were:

1:35

1:32

1:36

1:22  (Holy Shite - I was flying here! - well for a phat old man).

The event concludes with music, free pizza and beer.  My first place age group (60-69) earned me a beer glass with the event logo from a local craft brewery (Frog Level).

That is a hell of a kick you found at the end there!  Wow!!  Can I have some of your speed please?

I found at my mile race in June that there were relatively more fast people too.  I guess maybe road miles draw in some of the younger track people that you don't see at 5ks and up so much?  I don't know.

Congratulations on an awesome race!  What's next on your calendar?

Great job. Impressive time!

LRB - I went to the race right after work, so got there about 30 minutes before the first race kicked off.  I ran a mile warm up (packet pickup was at the finish line - so ran to the starting line)  Then had to wait an hour for my heat.  I jogged behind the heat that took off before mine for a quarter mile or so, then back - then just did some back and forth behind the starting line to get another mile warm up.

Musicgirl.- next up is part of a 12 person team doing the blue ridge relay.  I'll be doing segmants 12, 24, and 36.  That last is the glory leg to the finish.  Hope I don't screw it up.  http://www.blueridgerelay.com/

bluerun - I think that was more a result of not knowing what I could run - held back more than I realized and then picked it up when the finish line was noticeably closer.  Also, the crowds were bigger in the last quarter, and there were a couple of people in striking distance.  Got them both.  

Cool AG award!  Nice race, Bluesky!  So how did it feel?  What it as terrible awful just horrible a running experience as I would imagine it to be?

1/4:     +0

1/2:     +8 Sec

3/4:     +8 sec

1 mile:+5 sec

^ Mine.

You mean I beat you at something? Of course you were running much faster FFS.

 

Hah!

You should come down one summer and train in the heat!  

You kidding me? There are not enough barrels in Texas to hold all that whine. lol

Of course I am not as affected by the heat when training for and racing the mile, so you might be onto something there.

Wow!  I can only dream about running those paces, lol.  Congrats!