PRB!
As in Personal Record, Baby!
Today was another fantastic day for running. I wore shorts and a long sleeve tech, but it was hot enough that I should have worn short sleeves. I was on call so I had to take my beeper and phone to the race. (I also let the residents know where I'd be, and told them to check in with me early in the day if anything was "brewing".)
I think I'm going to have to get one of those fuel belt type things, as the current solution is kind of annoying.The beeper's on vibrate, and I'm constantly checking it. The phone is in the amphipod, which I don't really like. I find that I have to tie my shorts really tight, to prevent the phone from dragging them down. But anyway...
I left my house really early today so I wouldn't get there late like I usually do. I got to the Central Park area around 9:15 and as usual I couldn't find parking. After trying for a while I finally gave up and parked about a mile away. I meant to take a cab from there, but I kept walking and actually got there pretty quickly. I was at the registration tent at about 9:45, which was 15 minutes before the race. I registered, put on my bib and chip, dropped off my bag, and used the port-a-potty. Only then did I realize the race start was quite a ways off. I was walking towards on it and they kept announcing "four minutes left", "three minutes left". As the guy was announcing "two minutes left" the runners were already running on the course behind him. Oh well. There I was again, still stretching after the race had already started. (Looking at the results I can tell I crossed the start line at 4:44.)
I was really hoping to PR this race, and for once, I had actually looked up my previous PR. My previous best was 55:43, which was an 8:59 pace. My plan was to start out at about 9 minute miles, and as the race went on, try to pick up the pace.
Well as you can imagine, starting so far back, the beginning was very crowded. (Did I mention there were over 5,000 runners?) I had no room to move, and I didn't feel like going crazy on the weaving either. I kind of took it in stride, and accepted to myself that this would not be a fast run. "Another training run", I thought. Well at the first mile marker my time was 9:25 and I was pretty surprised. I was pretty comfortable, and knew that I had been going much slower for the first half mile. "Hmm..." I thought. The second mile went by in less than 9 minutes, for a total of 18:18 by that point. Now I started to get confident about the PR again.
As each mile went by, I felt I was getting faster and faster. (Actually, there's a blip on mile 4. But as Derek points out, that mile has the hills on it.) Granted I've only run two 10K's before, but it was really cool knowing I was setting a PR.
(I'm not sure about that slowing down at the end. There is a slight hill there, but it may just be GPS innaccuracies.)
I crossed the finish line with a net time of 53:04 - 2 minutes and 39 seconds better than my PR! I was really psyched about this. Especially since all my times have been getting slower lately. So today was really nice.
As an aside, I've organized all my race records together, so I can see my PR's at various distances. (I'm working on getting those into my sidebar.) With the exception of my 5 mile time, my PR's are now coming into line with each other. My half marathon PR is still the best (relatively), and I feel like I can get faster with my shorter distance races. I'd really like to break the 8 min/mile barrier for the 5K and 4M races. I think it will be tough, but it's definitely within reach.
The race today was in the clockwise direction. That meant two things. Firstly, the hills are much easier in this direction. Secondly, it meant that the last few miles are essentially the same as the end of the marathon. Running those miles, especially with legs starting to cramp, brought back a lot ofgreat painful mixed memories. I really hope to run NYC again, and finish stronger next time. (If I ever get those PRs up, you'll see my marathon time is way out of whack from the other distances.)
Update: I actually figured how to do it a relatively neat looking fashion. (Thanks A. Maria - I kind of "stole" your chart code.)
Today was another fantastic day for running. I wore shorts and a long sleeve tech, but it was hot enough that I should have worn short sleeves. I was on call so I had to take my beeper and phone to the race. (I also let the residents know where I'd be, and told them to check in with me early in the day if anything was "brewing".)
I think I'm going to have to get one of those fuel belt type things, as the current solution is kind of annoying.The beeper's on vibrate, and I'm constantly checking it. The phone is in the amphipod, which I don't really like. I find that I have to tie my shorts really tight, to prevent the phone from dragging them down. But anyway...
I left my house really early today so I wouldn't get there late like I usually do. I got to the Central Park area around 9:15 and as usual I couldn't find parking. After trying for a while I finally gave up and parked about a mile away. I meant to take a cab from there, but I kept walking and actually got there pretty quickly. I was at the registration tent at about 9:45, which was 15 minutes before the race. I registered, put on my bib and chip, dropped off my bag, and used the port-a-potty. Only then did I realize the race start was quite a ways off. I was walking towards on it and they kept announcing "four minutes left", "three minutes left". As the guy was announcing "two minutes left" the runners were already running on the course behind him. Oh well. There I was again, still stretching after the race had already started. (Looking at the results I can tell I crossed the start line at 4:44.)
I was really hoping to PR this race, and for once, I had actually looked up my previous PR. My previous best was 55:43, which was an 8:59 pace. My plan was to start out at about 9 minute miles, and as the race went on, try to pick up the pace.
Well as you can imagine, starting so far back, the beginning was very crowded. (Did I mention there were over 5,000 runners?) I had no room to move, and I didn't feel like going crazy on the weaving either. I kind of took it in stride, and accepted to myself that this would not be a fast run. "Another training run", I thought. Well at the first mile marker my time was 9:25 and I was pretty surprised. I was pretty comfortable, and knew that I had been going much slower for the first half mile. "Hmm..." I thought. The second mile went by in less than 9 minutes, for a total of 18:18 by that point. Now I started to get confident about the PR again.
As each mile went by, I felt I was getting faster and faster. (Actually, there's a blip on mile 4. But as Derek points out, that mile has the hills on it.) Granted I've only run two 10K's before, but it was really cool knowing I was setting a PR.
(I'm not sure about that slowing down at the end. There is a slight hill there, but it may just be GPS innaccuracies.)
I crossed the finish line with a net time of 53:04 - 2 minutes and 39 seconds better than my PR! I was really psyched about this. Especially since all my times have been getting slower lately. So today was really nice.
As an aside, I've organized all my race records together, so I can see my PR's at various distances. (I'm working on getting those into my sidebar.) With the exception of my 5 mile time, my PR's are now coming into line with each other. My half marathon PR is still the best (relatively), and I feel like I can get faster with my shorter distance races. I'd really like to break the 8 min/mile barrier for the 5K and 4M races. I think it will be tough, but it's definitely within reach.
The race today was in the clockwise direction. That meant two things. Firstly, the hills are much easier in this direction. Secondly, it meant that the last few miles are essentially the same as the end of the marathon. Running those miles, especially with legs starting to cramp, brought back a lot of
Update: I actually figured how to do it a relatively neat looking fashion. (Thanks A. Maria - I kind of "stole" your chart code.)
posted by Danny on Sunday, April 02, 2006
12 Comments:
Great job! It's a great feeling to be on pace for a PR and it's an even better feeling when it happens. Way to go.
I just registered for next Sunday's race. I may have to steal your code for the PR's. That is cool.
Well done! That was a great run!
Nicely done. Congrats on the PR. They sure do feel good.
I really like the overview picture of Central Park, even that brings back memories of the NYC 'thon. You mentioned going clockwise, does this race switch back and forth every year?
Awesome job on the race!!! I bet a race in Central Park would be really cool.
We rocked tanks and shorts all weekend!!
Nicely done!! What's the difference between split time and split pace (i'm such an idiot). and what's a blib at mile 4? anyway, you done good! (but yeah, those shorts look like they might just drop at any moment. Alert! (I'll be stealing your code, too. a. maria started a virus!)
Congratulations on the PR!
I hope someday to run in New York too. It sounds great.
the split time is the actual time, and the pace is the time per mile. for intervals or laps of one mile they're the same.
and that blib is now a blip.
:-)
Awesome Job! I love the feeling of the PR. The race Jason and I ran this weekend also follows the start and finish of the Chicago Marathon, which definently brought back tons of memories of the mararthon.
Way to go! Lots of PRs to be had yesterday:)
Hey...nice PR!!! Strong finish. I know...during the race I always feel like I screwed up if one of my splits is really off-I always completely forget different portions of the course have different characteristics-like giant hills. Congrats!!
congrats on your PR!! yesterday definitely was a nice day to run :)
you weren't kidding about the crowded start!! where i was, it took me about 2 minutes to cross and it was still a mess for the first mile.
Congrats on the PR, Danny! I think you beat my best 10K time.
I love that aerial image on the Forerunner tracks. I need to do that for my races and put them in a nice file someplace.
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