Cowboy Hazel

Wow, what a difference a year can make! I headed out to Brooklyn this morning for my second running of the Prospect Park Turkey Trot and cut over four minutes off my previous time! Today, I ran the 5 miles in 30:39 (a 6:08 pace), which completely shattered my previous personal record at this distance and also at any distance greater than a mile. Needless to say, I don't have to look very far to find what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving! Of course, this doesn't wash away all the heartache from Philly, but it certainly provides a good distraction from it. I still can't even believe it. This was so much better than what I had hoped to do today. And, this makes me even more excited for the upcoming barrage of short winter races I have planned. It's going to be a fun season!

Although I finished with a great time, it wasn't a perfect race. I still really struggled with pacing issues. I was lined up right at the front and let the momentum of the crowd push me to a much faster start than I should have had. I hit the first mile marker at 5:37 (just a few seconds off my mile P.R.) and quickly realized that I was at an unsustainable pace. I slowed to 6:13 the second mile and then 6:40 the third mile (but that one was almost entirely uphill). I regained momentum on the fourth (downhill) mile, running it in 6:06 and the final one in 6:04. I can't help but wonder how much time I would have cut from the total if I hadn't burned up so much fuel that first mile.

I tried a new technique (more out of necessity than because it was actually planned) on the hills today and it actually seemed to work better. Normally, I try to attack the uphill portions aggressively and tend to pass a lot of people during that time. Then, coming back down, I ease up a bit and recover, usually being passed a few times while doing so. Today, during the third mile, I just didn't have enough juice to run fast up the hill and was passed by three different people. But then, at the top of the hill, I realized I still had a little something left and kicked up the pace coming down. I really opened up my stride and passed all three that had passed me before, plus two others. The speed coming off that hill carried me through all the way to the finish.

Another small thing I learned was to not grab water in these shorter races. I was running neck and neck with a guy in a blue sweatshirt for about a half a mile before the first water station. I grabbed a cup and drank it on the run while he just kept going. I had a pretty much perfect grab of the cup, drinking it in stride, etc. (no slips or anything), but still he ended up twenty yards ahead of me because he didn't grab any water. It took me over three miles to catch up to him again. Needless to say, I didn't grab water at the second fluid station.

One final thought – I have a tendency to look back on races and think, Oh, that wasn't so tough. I probably could have shaved a few seconds off here or there. And, there's a chance that I might try to do the same with this one. So, to prevent that phenomenon, I want to record in writing while it's fresh in my mind how much today's race hurt. It was absolutely a 100% effort. There's no way I could have run any faster than I did (other than by pacing better, but I'm talking overall effort put into the race here, not race strategy). I felt like I was going to puke pretty much the entire last four miles of the race. And, there was a point right around the mile 4 marker that I got really light-headed and had to slow down a bit because I felt like I was going to pass out. I didn't, of course, and finished the race strong, but there was absolutely nothing left at the end. I could barely stand up while they clipped the chip off my shoe. It only took five or ten minutes to recover, but still, I was trashed right at the finish. Like I said, that's more a note for me than anything else – I want to keep that in mind going into these next few races. I know I'm tantalizingly close to that elusive six-minute mile mark, but I don't think I'm quite there yet, at least not at this distance.

Well, I'm going to grab some lunch and then I actually have to spend the rest of my day working. Taking two weeks off in December is going to be great, but there's a hell of a lot of work to be done before then to make that happen. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!