Notes
I ran in the Colon Cancer Challenge 4 mile race this morning, and it went really well. Mr. (Dr) Webber organizes the race so it's something that dad and I wanted to do (after having done it two years ago but not being able to register in time last year) and it was a lot of fun. I went in planning to keep it as a tempo, since I shouldn't be doing road races at this point in the track season, and I was able to do so while still pulling out a win in a big NYC race! I stuck on the shoulder of the various leaders for the first 2.5/3 miles, not wanting to set the pace or break the air so I just shadowed whoever was in front (which, had someone done that to me, admittedly would have really bothered me, but oh well) and we hit fairly even splits for the first 3 miles of 5:31, 5:26, 5:32, and then I made a move and pulled away while pushing the last mile harder for a final split of 5:12 and an overall 21:42 to win by a fairly comfortable 7 seconds. I felt really smooth all the way through, and once I saw that the pack was maintaining a solid tempo pace (for me) I was pretty confident that I would be able to pull out the win. Making a move by myself with over a mile to go made me a little nervous, but obviously in the end it paid off.
As it turned out, however, I wasn't actually the first person to cross the finish line. A pack of 4 kids about my age flew past me with about a half mile to go, and I knew that they hadn't been with the lead pack for the whole race. As it turned out afterwards they weren't even actually in the race, but were visiting from Britain and had jumped in late, supposedly not realizing that it was a race (though the fancy finish line should have given in away...). They apologized afterwards and were very friendly, telling me that they were milers and 3K steeple runners looking for American scholarships, and would be competing at a track meet at UMass in the near future. Maybe I'll see them again in two weeks?