Now that was a fantastic race. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Yesterday I’d driven the course, and was reminded just how hilly this is. There’s a monster hill about four miles into the course, but that tends to make it easy to ignore the fact that the rest of the route is simply covered in rolling hills as well. Trundling around the course really enforced the need to have a good race strategy. Yesterday Gilbert had suggested taking it easy for the first 5K, taking it easy on the hills (the next two miles) and then picking it up on the second half.

I showed up just in time to make the Gazelle warmup ritual - meeting an hour before the start at the finish line. We did a nice 1.6 mile jog out along the course and back, getting familiar with the final stretch; this averaged a 12:09 pace. When Gilbert says slow, he means slow. Next we did our customary half mile of warmup drills, and about 10 minutes of stretching. That left just enough time to head for the car, blow my nose, drink some more PowerAde, and shuffle on down to take my place in the chute, about 30 seconds back from the start. Oh, I didn’t mention blowing my nose? Well, thanks to this cold snap my allergies picked up something amazing this weekend and I was completely congested. Not ideal racing conditions, but hey, you plays the cards you’re dealt.

Last year I ran this race in 1:33:02 with negative splits: 47:29.1 (9:30 pace) for the first half and 45:31.8 (9:06 pace) for the second half. This year my plan was similar with a few modifications, basically involving going faster. I planned to run the first few miles at a bit slower (8:30s), take it easy through the hills, then try to get the last few miles down below my marathon goal pace (8:00), with the proviso that if I felt at all bad I was going to pull back. Basically one minute per mile faster than last year all around. My number one goal at this point is not screwing up New York in any way shape or form.

And they’re off! I crossed the line 24.7 seconds later and started heading out. The first mile is a gentle uphill which is nice for two reasons: its hard to go out too crazy fast, and it means that the last mile is a gentle downhill. That clicked off in 8:16, a little faster than I had intended but feeling nice and comfortable. The weather was amazing, 59 degrees with 83% humidity, and it only hit about 62 before the end of the race. How cool is that? I inadvertently picked it up as we moved down past 183 into the residential areas, and mile 2 ticked by in 7:53. This is faster than my MGP but slower than my theoretical 10 mile goal pace (7:30 according to McMillan.com); still, I pulled back a touch and did the next one in 8:04.

At the 3.6 mile water stop I grabbed some PowerAde and walked 2-3 steps to make sure I drank it all. Only some of the stops had the sports drink, and I didn’t want to get dehydrated like I did last year. That led right into a nice fast downhill to the bottom of the hill, the low point of the course, and the four mile marker for a 7:50 mile. I very intentionally had my Garmin on lap mode, not looking at all at my overall time, just taking it one lap at a time. I was also using it mainly as a guide to slow myself down, not wanting to go out too hard at the beginning. By and large though I was ahead of pace, but running comfortably.

Mile five is the hilly one. After trotting about 50M up Scotland Wells (which climbs a good 125′ in about a tenth of a mile, then another 75′ over the next quarter) I just walked my way up. I was pretty paranoid about getting something like an achillies sprain, and since I wasn’t going for a full-on race I figured this was sensible. David Mitchell caught up to me at the top of the major portion of the hill; we chatted for a while then he pulled about 50′ away from me, where he would stay for the next 3 miles. I saw Carrie and Jason and some other folk here, its a very popular tourist spot, and I started running again once the worst of the hill was over. At the mile 5 water stop I took my only Gu, and then there was another hill just around the corner which I walked as well. All in all, that was my slowest mile at an 9:07, which is pretty good all things considered. I also wasn’t significantly tired at the end of it, which was my main goal.

As I mentioned, there was one really significant hill in mile six, which took 8:11; I ran everything from there on out. Mile seven has a surprise hill in the middle of it, just when you think you’re done you climb another really steep 25′. Vicious. It went by in 8:14, then I started to pick up the speed. Mile eight ticked by right at my 8:00 MGP, but I really wanted to see if I could hit my 10 mile goal pace (7:30) for the remainder, even though there were some rollers still to come (actually it was rolling from 6.5 on, it looks all “smoothed” out on the elevation chart, but they’re significant in the real world). I could see David in front of me as we headed down Jolleyville so I started to bring it up and close that gap. I don’t think he’d ever beaten me in a 10 mile (or longer) race before, and I wanted to keep the tradition alive, even if I was supposed to be taking it easy.

Mile nine down Jolleyville was very smooth, especially considering that I was going slightly faster than my goal pace - it slid in at 7:27. I was feeling really good, not tired or thirsty at all, and I felt like I could have kept up that pace for another few miles as if I was doing a half marathon. That’s the benefit of following a sound race strategy, I guess. Either that, or I should have gone even faster and been less comfortable! Still, since this was supposed to be an “easy, run how you feel,” race, I just kicked back and enjoyed it.

Gilbert came by and turned to run with David a little, at this point only about 15′ ahead of me, giving advice; when he moved back to me he checked out my form and just said, “Looking good, man,” and moved on. What a compliment! I yelled after him to ask if he won, which he did - I found out later he knocked 2 minutes off his time from last year and did perfectly even splits at a 5:26 pace to come in at 54:23. Beat the next runner (Greg McMillan) by two and a half minutes, so he said this was more like a “tempo run” than an all-out race, and yet after that he has time to coach his peeps too? He really is da man.

Coming up at mile 9 we passed the final waterstop and I wanted to cool down, so I grabbed a cup of what turned out to be PowerAde. Luckily I noticed in time, tossed it to the ground, and grabbed water to dump on my head. And to any of the girl scounts volunteering at that table, I hope you didn’t hear what I said when I realized I had the wrong drink, sorry! Anyway, I finally caught David after another quarter mile and just ticked past him. I was hoping he’d pick it up and we could race it in, but no dice. I continued to slide on by people coming down the line, and made the final turn in towards the finish line.

This was it. There was some woman I didn’t recognize ahead of me, maybe 20′ up, with the finish 50′ away. Just 50′? I had that, easy. I still had plenty of speed left so I kicked it in and tore up the pavement, flying past her to cross the line going fast and feeling wonderful at what was probably around a 6:00 pace! My final mile was a 7:06, and I didn’t kill myself getting there either, and that contributed to my final time of 1:20:13.3 or an 8:01 pace. That’s pretty much my MGP, and this is a bitch of a course. Its also a 12:49 PR, which is pretty rockin’. I did an 8:14 average for the first half, and a 7:48 average over the second. I figure this worked so well because I had a strategy, I stuck to it (in principal), and I wasn’t afraid to adjust it (in this case, faster) according to the way I felt on the day. Sometimes planning pays off!

Oh, and David? Even though I crossed the line 13 seconds ahead of him, he beat me fair and square with a 1:19:54.1 official chip time, his first sub 8:00 pace on this course which is really cool. This was an amazing day all around, between the weather, the course, the people, the police (always think your race blockers); everything just came together and a fun time was had by all.

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