Colon Cancer Challenge

It's taken some time to put together this report, but I had another great race this Sunday. The Colon Cancer Challenge, which I've mentioned here before, is a race I run every year. It's a fundraiser for colon cancer prevention and research, and this year I raised $427. I also captained "Team Einstein", which ended up with 23 members, and raised over $2000.

In the past I've always run the 4 miler. This year I signed up for the 15K (9.3M), as did a bunch of my friends. I drove down to the race with a couple of med students. At the race we met up with some other friends who were also running the 15K at 10:15. Th 4M was at 9, so we were able to meet the other members of Team Einstein who ran the earlier race. Many of them I'd never actually met before, so it was kind of nice. The team ended up having doctors, students, nurses, physical therapists, dietitians, and administrators. I was pretty proud of this
multidisciplinary team.





Anyway, after some socializing and picture taking, about 7 of us headed over to the race start. I had thought that most people would run the 4M, and that the 15K would be empty. I was wrong, and it was pretty crowded. 2,395 runners (versus 2,693 in the 4M)! Like usual I lined up back in the thick of the crowd.

When the race started, I was taking it pretty easy. I had mentioned to my friends before the race that I had no idea what pace to run a 15K, and that I'd be very happy with a 9 min pace. In that first half a mile it felt like I couldn't move, and I remember saying "so much for running fat today". I'm not sure why I never learn, but the best races happen when I'm not stressing too hard at the start. I ended up crossing the 1st mile marker at 8:58 and was surprised at how easy it had felt.

I was running with one other teammate at this point and I think we sped up a bit as we were encouraged by our time, and that there was more space now. The second mile went by in 7:31. I was pretty sure (at the time at least) that it was mismarked. Mile 3 in 8:34. That still seemed fast, but now I couldn't say this was mismarked as well. I was running hard and I was hurting a little, but I wasn't running out of steam at all.

The next splits went by as follows:
mile 4: 7:51
mile 5: 8:04
mile 6: 8:10
mile 7: 8:10 (I missed the mile 6 marker)
mile 8: 8:03

At this time I started to make calculations in my head that I could possibly beat 1:15. (That's how I pass the time when I'm not listening to a podcast.) I didn't calculate it to the second but I was pretty sure I had to speed up significantly at the finish. I was really tired, and thinking of waiting until the last second for my finishing kick, but I decided then to try and start early. I don't remember where I was exactly, but I'm pretty sure it was after mile 8.5.

In the end mile, 9 went by in 7:32 and the last 0.3 took 1:59 (6:37 pace). The last two splits don't seem too impressive, but I ended up finishing 2 full minutes ahead of the guy I ran the first 8.5 miles with! I also passed the only other Einstein runner ahead of me with maybe 0.1 miles to go. She's very competitive so I tried to stay out of sight on the far side. She ended up seeing me but didn't have enough energy to keep up. I was really speeding!

My final time was 1:14:57, for an 8:03 pace. Way better than I expected!

(Ok, so I was limping the last few days. Is that too much a price to pay? Actually, my right knee was bothering me again for a day, but it's not too bad today. I went out for 5 miles nice and easy tonight.)

The race was tough, but fun. My running partner for almost the entire race was a med student who happens to be an IronMan. (Talk about an overachiever - and there's even more on his resume!) We were talking a lot in the beginning, but slowed that down as we got faster. It was still nice to have someone there. It felt like we were pushing each other to run faster the entire race.


chief of surgery, me, chief operating officer of hospital

I also saw Uptown Girl cheering on the side. Actually, the first thing I noticed were the pom-poms! Then I made the connection and noticed Uptown Girl. I shouted hello, and was rewarded with this picture.



Afterwards, a bunch of Team Einstein went out for lunch. It was really fun hanging out with a team. On the way to the bagel shop we passed a bunch of other teams, so I know it's something they do often. For me though this was unusual, and fun. I'm hoping to draft more runners into running these races with me in the future.



I'm not sure what's up next for me. I've been toying with the idea of running a spring marathon but I haven't really done any serious training. I have done a few half's recently and this 15K, so I'm not starting at scratch. I'm just not sure there's enough time to get up to a marathon without getting hurt. I think if I want to give it a shot, I have to run 14 miles this Sunday and see how it goes. Even if I don't do a full marathon now, I'll probably do another half in either April or May. Either way I'll have to buy a new poster board!


(BTW, in the top right corner of the bottom left board, I've replaced Brad Luff's bib with a new one that I got from the NYRR. It's still not mine, but at least it's not someone else's!)