Notes
We run this most years, to support the zoo, but it is never a great 'race' for some reason. This year was no different. The day was quite rainy, but the temperature was comfortable.
The organization at the start of the race was a mess. The chip timing mat only reached halfway across the road, and there were no cordons, so once past the immediate vicinity of the mats, people were across the entire street, which meant that when the race began, there was a crush as people funneled down into the usable mat area. On top of that, walkers and runners were lined up together with no pace groupings of any kind, and the police parked a car less than 30 feet beyond the mat, so that as people were merging down, they had to go around an obstacle.
The race route was the same as previous years. Down the road that the starting line is on for approximately a mile, slightly downhill, until turning off onto a little windy road that dips down further before a serious uphill on the last half of the second mile. The second mile mark is just beyond a roundabout, from which you turn down a side street for a little while before entering a side entrance to the zoo. You then run a little less than a mile inside the zoo itself, crossing the finish near the aquarium.
The first mile, I ran a 7:10, which was honestly better than what I was expecting to see, given the crowds, and variation in pacing that I had to weave through. I knew that if I wanted to match Wednesday's pace, I had some time to make up, so the second mile I ran at a 6:50 pace, crossing the two mile mark at 14:00 even. This was within the 7:00 pace that I am hoping I will hit soon, so I continued, but the second mile, between dropping the pace and the uphill for the second half, left me a little worn out. At about 2 and a half, I saw I had run about a 3:45 pace, and at that point, knowing I wasn't going to make up that time the last half, I just slowed down and let myself enjoy the rest of the run, finishing in 22:51.
Honestly, all things considered, this went better than expected. I put in way too many speedy miles in the past 7-8 days, and even my 'recovery' days ended up transforming into speedy days, because I let myself get carried along with other people. As a result, I entered feeling like my legs were flat, and I wasn't going to do well, so to hang with my previous pace for almost 2.5 miles is a success in my book.