This morning was the Bronx 10 Mile Race. A few days ago, I decided my race-plans for all of my September races. For today's race, I wanted to run marathon goal pace- somewhere between 8:00-8:20 pace. Since Philadelphia will be my first marathon, I honestly don't know what to expect, or what I'm capable of, so I just keep hoping that this is realistic!
Anthony and I took the subway up to the race and were supposed to get there for an 8:00am start. In true NYC MTA fashion, the train didn't leave when my phone said it would, so we missed the connection to the 4 train. We finally got to the start at 8:05am. Normally, I would have been so stressed about this. But since I wasn't racing the race today, we walked casually to the start, hopped in the back of the corrals and waited over 9 minutes to cross the starting line. I've always said that I thought it would be kind of run to start in the back so you have the confidence of passing people all the way through the course. And today, I kind of liked it! I've heard bad things about the NYRR corrals recently, so was worried it would be really congested for the first few miles, but I didn't feel that at all. Of course, there's the typical maneuvering all throughout the race, but I never felt like I was stuck in a certain pack and couldn't get around.
It was the PERFECT day for a race. Cool enough at the start, but also sunny. We finally crossed the starting line and got off to an uneventful start. Anthony and I got separated pretty quickly- either during mile one or two, but found each other again when the police held us from going forward to let an ambulance cross the street. Subtract 20 seconds from my race time, please! That was fun. It was also fun when I nearly got taken out by a father and son trying to cross the street, that ran directly into me. After those two occurrences, it was smooth sailing for the rest of the race.
After taking nearly two weeks off for foot tendinitis, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to maintain MGP for 10 miles. However, I was happy to find that whenever I was in the 8:15-8:20 pace range, I felt completely comfortable. When I dropped below that (with the exception of the last mile or two), I felt more labored, but could hold the pace. I'm excited for the Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half next week to try this again and see if the pace feels easier/if I can maintain my pace closer to 8:00 without feeling like I'm working really hard.
Here are my splits from today:
Official results:
Of course, NYRR didn't account for the 20 second ambulance ride, but I'll take it anyway, since I was still within my goal pace.
I felt great throughout the whole race. I didn't struggle mentally (okay, maybe briefly a few times) and while I was working hard, I could have kept going. This makes me feel great about the Philly Marathon since I still have 2 months of training and several races left.
After the race, I ran 4 (slow) miles back to my apartment with Carla to bring the total up to 14. This is the most I've run in 5 weeks- pre-tendinitis. YAY!
Check back next week to see how the Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half goes!
Did you run the Bronx 10 Mile race today? How's your training going? What's your next race?
Anthony and I took the subway up to the race and were supposed to get there for an 8:00am start. In true NYC MTA fashion, the train didn't leave when my phone said it would, so we missed the connection to the 4 train. We finally got to the start at 8:05am. Normally, I would have been so stressed about this. But since I wasn't racing the race today, we walked casually to the start, hopped in the back of the corrals and waited over 9 minutes to cross the starting line. I've always said that I thought it would be kind of run to start in the back so you have the confidence of passing people all the way through the course. And today, I kind of liked it! I've heard bad things about the NYRR corrals recently, so was worried it would be really congested for the first few miles, but I didn't feel that at all. Of course, there's the typical maneuvering all throughout the race, but I never felt like I was stuck in a certain pack and couldn't get around.
It was the PERFECT day for a race. Cool enough at the start, but also sunny. We finally crossed the starting line and got off to an uneventful start. Anthony and I got separated pretty quickly- either during mile one or two, but found each other again when the police held us from going forward to let an ambulance cross the street. Subtract 20 seconds from my race time, please! That was fun. It was also fun when I nearly got taken out by a father and son trying to cross the street, that ran directly into me. After those two occurrences, it was smooth sailing for the rest of the race.
After taking nearly two weeks off for foot tendinitis, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to maintain MGP for 10 miles. However, I was happy to find that whenever I was in the 8:15-8:20 pace range, I felt completely comfortable. When I dropped below that (with the exception of the last mile or two), I felt more labored, but could hold the pace. I'm excited for the Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half next week to try this again and see if the pace feels easier/if I can maintain my pace closer to 8:00 without feeling like I'm working really hard.
Here are my splits from today:
Of course my Garmin was off and made me look
slightly faster. Thanks, Garmin!
I negative split! YIPPEE!! Hopefully that's a good sign for next weekend!
Official results:
Of course, NYRR didn't account for the 20 second ambulance ride, but I'll take it anyway, since I was still within my goal pace.
I felt great throughout the whole race. I didn't struggle mentally (okay, maybe briefly a few times) and while I was working hard, I could have kept going. This makes me feel great about the Philly Marathon since I still have 2 months of training and several races left.
After the race, I ran 4 (slow) miles back to my apartment with Carla to bring the total up to 14. This is the most I've run in 5 weeks- pre-tendinitis. YAY!
Check back next week to see how the Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half goes!
Did you run the Bronx 10 Mile race today? How's your training going? What's your next race?
I though about you and Anthony at 9 am while I was finishing my 16 mile run! although we were not running together, we were ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great readd
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