Cowboy Hazel

I wish more days were like today. This morning started off just about as good as they get. And from there, it just kept rolling.

Nearing 8 o'clock, I found myself lined up and ready to race in Central Park. My nerves were so bad that I was in serious physical pain, but I was trying to focus, trying to calm myself. Breathe, Robert, breathe. When the air horn went off and I started running, I was finally able to relax a bit. A few people were passing me, I was passing others, and I ended up at the bottom of the hill at a 6:04 pace. Need to reel it in a bit. Took Harlem Hill steady, felt strong at the top.

Mile 1 beeped at 6:11. Nice. The crowd was thinning out and I was able to settle into a bit of a rhythm. Left arm, right arm, left arm, right arm. I wasn't paying attention to my legs at all, just making sure that my upper body was smooth and efficient.

Mile 2 beeped and I looked down to see a 6:13. Still right on. I started to feel a little fatigue for the first time about halfway through this mile. In response, I fought back against the pace a little too hard and ended mile 3 with 6:06. Still, I had planned to be at 18:45 and I was at 18:30. Pretty damn close for me. I hadn't let myself get carried away.

Mile 4 was where it started to hurt. I finished with a 6:14, which was right on pace, but it was painful. And then it was time to face my nemesis, Cat Hill. I started up it strong, steadily passing people on the way, but around two-thirds of the way up, I was overcome with nausea and was forced to slow down a bit to keep from losing my breakfast. It felt like I was crawling, so I was relieved when mile 5 beeped and I looked down to see that I had only slipped to 6:20.

When I hit the left hand turn by the Reservoir onto the straightaway, I was in the midst of a pack of five runners. Realizing that I had juice in the tank (now that we were on flat ground) and could just pull out of the group and run on was such an amazing feeling that I actually started laughing. It was a crazy laugh, and I'm sure that they wondered what the hell was wrong with me, but I couldn't really control it. I was just so happy that I was actually racing smart.

The last mile ended up being a 5:59! I was going through hell, but just kept focusing on my arms and staring straight ahead, trying to zone out the pain. I was steadily passing people and just kept trying to look as easy and relaxed as possible so they wouldn't know how I was dying and pass me back.

At the mile 6 marker, we hit a little hill and it was just too much for me. I threw up in my mouth coming around the corner onto the transverse and wasn't able to sprint in to the finish. I got passed by two guys on this last tiny stretch, which was a little disappointing. But, as that was the only mistake in an otherwise almost perfect race, I was able to let it slide.

I ended up with a time of 38:20, a 6:10 pace, and 46 seconds better than my previous personal best. That was good enough for 137th out of 4,776 overall. More importantly, I finally ran the smart race I've been looking for. It felt great.

After a jog back home and a hour-long rest, I was changed into another set of running clothes and back out on the roads. This time I was heading north, up through Harlem and the Heights on my way to the George Washington Bridge. I was feeling guilty about the light mileage I'd put in this week and decided to tack on a few extra. Turned out to be a great idea as I had a fantastic run. The bridge was even better than normal today – the snow that didn't stick anywhere else had stuck there so I got to run through crunchy snow and ice while looking out over the always amazing views.

I probably should have brought some Gatorade or something along because I ran out of fuel bad about an hour-and-a-half into the run. Luckily, I was almost home by then and was able to power through. The run ended up being a little over 13 miles at 7:47/mile. Not a bad for a cooldown...

So, between the real warmup and cooldown this morning, the race, and the fun run up north, I ended up with 22 miles for the day. That made for a very guilt-free nap when I got back home.