40th Annual NYRR Mini 10k

I have kind of a weakness for events like this, that bring people - usually women - of all stripes together to run.  Forty years ago, the idea of women running, or participating in any athletic endeavor, was mildly scandalous, and now women run professionally, women run in tutus, women run wearing t-shirts bearing their name or their cause or the phrase "I [heart] Sweat".  Central Park West was closed on Saturday morning so that over six thousand women could run up it, and many of their male friends and partners and family ran on the sidewalk alongside the race or marshaled the course or cheered.  

As for me, I had a great race.  I had half-intended to just run it as a regular workout, since I haven't been running very much and it was 70 degrees an hour before the start.  But in the excitement of the race, my first mile - at a "comfortable but brisk" perceived exertion and up an gentle incline - clocked in around 9:36.  I slowed down a good deal after that, or thought I did, but my second mile came in at 9:46.  I was starting to feel the heat by then - I was experiencing "brownouts", where my head would get prickly and I'd start to see spots - so I kept "slowing down" and clocked in a 9:30 mile on the hills above 100th St.  

(About these speeds - I know they're not impressive for most runners, but for me, this is fast.  Very fast.  The last 10k I ran, two years ago, was at an 11:03 pace, and I typically race around a 10:30-10:45.  So paces with 9's in front of them seem fast to me.  Dangerously fast.  It's a good thing I didn't look at my watch after the first mile, because I'd have certainly psyched myself out and backed way off the scary paces.)

By the fourth mile I suffering.  This part of the course is a steady, moderate uphill with very few breaks.  I'd been walking through every water station to pour ice water on my face and neck - heat really doesn't agree with me - and had stopped feeling dangerously overheated.  But despite the breaks, I couldn't stabilize my heart rate or breathing.  My legs were getting tired, I hadn't been mentally prepared to race, and my mental game was down.  That mile came in at 10:18, my slowest of the race.  

The rest of the course was easier.  I was able to recover on the fifth mile for a 9:41, which I'm proud of because it's typically hard for me to bring my speed back up after a significant slowdown; this was a real triumph of mental game  I started to fall apart on the last 1.2 miles of the race; I was mentally in it, but my legs felt loose and heavy, and I ran a 9:59 sixth mile, probably a very uneven one.  I got a little bit of fire back at the end and finished with 0.35 at a 9:26 pace.  

My garmin total was 6.35 miles at a 9:48 average pace; and my official time was 1:01:58 for 6.2 miles with a 9:59 average pace.  For me this is... well, kind of incredible.  I'd said something, a few weeks ago, about how it would be cool to run a 10k in under an hour, but I thought it would take a long time - multiple seasons - to get in that kind of shape.  But based on this race, it would really just take a cooler day, a flatter course, and proper mental preparation.