JAPAN DAY RUN 4M

May 11, 2014 - (aka Mother's Day!)


Hey all - today is Mother's Day! Let's take a moment to appreciate the women who have made us who we are today, whether your are or are not biologically our mother, you are STILL our PARENT who raised us, who ingrained in us a purpose and nurtured it and gave us strength and the courage to pursue it.  We are grateful.

That being said, today was the EXACT SAME run that i completed 2 weekends ago.  Last time (see my post re Run As One 4M), I completed this particular course in 33:16.  Of course, (true to form) there was NO WAY I was going to run this exact same course 2 weeks later ... slower (barring of course some serious injury).

I must admit ... while my first mile i completed it in 8:22 ... i couldn't remember if i had run that faster in the last run.  I know that approaching my second mile, that I was faster.  In the rolling hills that plague miles 2.25 through 3.5 I did not stop, though at almost the exact same spot as 2 weeks ago, I contracted a nasty stitch.  But this time, my resolve was to fight through it and not stop like I did last time. ... any speed of running, no matter how slow, is faster than walking.  So I committed to running through the stitch, I'll pay for it later I know, but at the moment there was NO way I was going to stop to walk.  That's definitely a result of my lack of training myself to breathe correctly at a higher pace, I will learn ... eventually.

I attempted to sprint the last 0.2 miles as we rounded the corner that would lead us to the finish line but my legs were oddly shot (thanks steve for making me do 110lb squats 3 days before!) and I found it difficult to push the pace until the last 0.1 miles ... which of course I hit the Nitrous Oxide button and sped through the finish line trying desperately to catch my breath (thanks allergies!  I appreciate that you showed up full force all over the floor, pollen everywhere to welcome me into Central Park).  I stopped the watch just in time to hear it say ... 32:48 ... really?!

Of course, only would I celebrate when I looked up my OFFICIAL time at nyrr.org.  I got home and of course, while none of the other statistics were up I attempted to extract my time from the nyrr.org, which, were of course, readily available .... 32:45, pace 8:12. Huzzah!  I beat my old time!  Which can only meant that there was improvement!  Here are my final times:

Final Time -  32:45
Pace -  8:12
Rank - 1516/5707 (top 26.6%)
Age Place -  69/530 (top 13%)
Gender Place -  321/2736 (top 11.7%)

Next Run: Brooklyn Half Marathon (this should be epic!)