So, this was my first race of the year, during which I’ve been preparing for my first Ironman, so it’s been a very full, sometimes exciting off-season of training, including more (indoor) biking and swimming than I’ve done before — but not a focus on running. I had done this race last year, but that had been a winter of preparing for my first marathon. Still, I wanted to do a PR — I always want to do a PR! — and last year I had done 1:35 (7:21 min/mile), “inspired” by the dogged Michael Kalsar on my tail for the first 12 miles before passing me. (He qualified for Boston a month later, and again in November.) Pre-race, saw my friend Vadim and some of his tri team buddies, and Greg (spectator dad) supporting his 16-year old running his first HM.
I was frankly depressed the night before, with 3-6 inches of snow predicted to fall before sunrise; should I even bother risking the injuries that come with running on snow? Could I just “run for fun” without hoping for a PR in such conditions? And what does “for fun” mean — is that still racing? (“Dig deeper, Grasshopper.” I know, I know.)
But turns out that the roads were fine, except for Mile 9 (the damn NY Life parking lot), and except for dodging puddles. Temps were reasonable – 32 degrees, climbing to 38 degrees. Wore tri shorts, tights, wool anklets and socks, wicking T-shirt, wicking long-sleeve, lightweight beanie and gloves. The 20-25 minutes of warmup convinced me I didn’t need the arm warmers.
This is a mostly pretty but very hilly race, and had quite a few guys training for Boston — Mike from as far as Princeton, and another guy from Long Island — and two young guys visiting from Calgary (one running in hiking boots!). So very local, with some serious ringers.
So, the route winds through downtown Sleepy Hollow (including some ugly warehouse area to make up for deleting last year’s short trail run); coming out of the village (say, miles 1 to 2) is gradual uphill, but steep at the end; miles 3 to 5 are steady uphill (the famous Sleepy Hollow Ramp that starts the serious portion of our local bike rides), with short patch of flat, and some patches of very torn up road; once you’re on the “highway” (Phelps Way, route 117) there are a few swells, but it’s net downhill from miles 5 to 8; the loop into NY Life’s parking lot is downhill, then uphill, mile 8 1/2; somewhere between 9 and 10 there’s another hill, coming out of phelps hospital; pretty flat from 10 through 12 (other than steep uphill coming out of the train station, a swell after that, and back up and to the bridge coming out of Kings Point Park); uphill from 12 to 13. Important note from the warmup: the sign at the bottom of the last, very steep hill says “13 miles” but they’re lying, it’s another .3 miles to the top and the finish line.
The race plan was to run in heart rate Zone 1 (131-141) for mile 1, Z2 for miles 2-3; alternatively, to run 20″ slower than my goal pace (7:20) for those first 3 miles. In practice, I felt I would never catch up to my goal from taking those first miles so slowly; but even though I focussed on HR, miles 1 and 3 were within the planned pace (7:35s), and that uphill out of the village (8:20) would have wiped me out to go faster.
Starting at mile 3, Coach Debi said to just race, so I cranked it up and started counting the people I passed (and those who passed me). And I’m frankly amazed I have this reserve of speed and strength — training at 9:00 minute miles, and finding myself racing much faster — all that biking made different parts of my legs stronger, but still usable.
The success of this race wasn’t the result, per se, but the drive I found within me: I had to do sub-7:20s to beat my own time from last year; I didn’t care where I placed, but those moments when I felt relaxed, that’s too slow; I’ve trained and raced enough and now feel I can push harder and go faster, and four guys running together just added up my tally that much faster (running together must slow down at least one of them, because they tacitly give each other permission to be satisfied with that pace, and I am not satisfied, I’m chasing last year’s time), and the downhill is glorious (hitting 6:56 one mile and 7:04 the next, but that’s not going to be enough).
And I’m eating shot blocks on the even miles, and then caffeine shot blocks for miles 8 and 10, and then the plan is to run as fast as I can starting at mile 10 and THIS is the thrill, it’s uphill and I’m not much faster and hitting those snowy patches has to be slowing me down so that 20-year old lanky kid whom I passed a while ago manages to pass me, but that’s okay because by the end I’m net 45 victims.
And it’s great to have permission and confidence to not worry about maintaining a reserve, that I will complete this race (obviously), but the demon that I always face is the skinny little boy who thinks he can’t survive this exhaustion, and my abdominal injury from last fall tweaks but I know that means to take shorter strides, and I can’t make up for those slower miles, but overall I’m feeling strong and able to push a little harder and the course is a little long, and I go up up up that hill at the end and cross the blue and orange finish line mat and I am done.
Results: 1:39:26 (7:36 min/miles). Not the time I wanted, but good enough to come in 4/40 AG (50-54), and 92/756 OA. Course is a little longer than 13.1 (per three different GPS watches). And the best part is the first 10 miles were fun, steady, and satisfying. A good building block towards the Ironman in August, and NYC Marathon in November. It felt strong, and I enjoyed it, and that counts for a lot.