A Tumbling Pace

Tonight Renee and I went down to Pearl Street to both run the Pearl Street Mile again.  Renee’s classmate Sydney Rios and her mom Mary got us into this last year and Renee and I really liked it so we came back again.  I had run Long’s yesterday and had forgot about this race but it doesn’t really matter, it’s just a simple test of fitness  and last year I ran it on tired legs too so it would be a fair comparison.  I tried to warm up Renee and Syd, both 11 years olds, but…none of these girls LOVE to run, they just like this race and the tradition.  So my talk of striders and all of that didn’t motivate them to put much into the warmup, no biggie.  They both raced in another wave so I was able to capture a few videos.  Here is one that was pretty funny of Renee telling me that she is slow with a twinkle in her eye.  She has the best attitude and I love how does a few races without complaining at all because she loves the little Boulder traditions and being with her friends.

After she finished I ran my race.  My goal was to beat my time last year of 5:29.  I figured that would be a good demonstration of fitness the day after running a 14er.  I knew that warming up was key so I ran the race course twice and worked out the dead legs.  Then I did a ton of striders right up until the time 10 seconds before the race started.   Whenever I ask people for a good mile race strategy (like I did Matt Hill before the race) it is run fast, or go out fast and finish faster.  This makes sense but I put my twist on it by deciding to spend the first 1/2 of the race with just fast leg turnover and save the big mental effort for the second 1/2 .   I started off and quickly fell back into the final 1/3 of the pack, since I am pretty slow compared to most of the competitive male runners.  I quickly found out I was behind a kid, just like last year, this time about 12 or 13.  Damn fast Boulder kids.  I kept my effort down and looked down at my watch and noticed we were at a 5:15 pace, pretty good.  The last 1/2 of the race is slightly uphill, I tried to slowly gain on the people in front of me by striding out and using my big climbing muscles to power up even this slight incline instead of quickening and shortening my stride like most people on hills.  This worked well, I didn’t fade on the hill and passed a couple of people.  Then I kicked it, a much better kick than last year, partly spurred on by Julie and Sacia yelling that their were naked girls at the finish line (they are hilarious).    I passed about 4 people, including the kid thank God, and finished in 5:24, 5 seconds better than last year, and 44th, 6 places better.  So I am really happy about my effort.  I am noticing as a whole that my self-talk is also better than last year, not to mention my fitness being slightly better.  

Fun way to end the day with Renee, including Glacial gelato for me and Cefiore frozen yogurt for Renee.