4 Miles

On Sunday my boss called me up and asked if I wanted to run the Freedom Run on July 4th.  I have been running for the past month, 5 days a week, so I thought it wouldn't be too bad.  I run 4 miles on Saturdays so I figure the 4 mile Freedom run wouldn't be two bad. 

So, we registered on Monday.  Only, It wasn't a 4 mile run this year.  It was a 4.4 mile run.  Now, neither one of us has run longer then 4 miles before but we figure that another .4 miles couldn't be too terribly bad, right?  Besides, there were two others from the company running.  They usually run 6+ miles at a time on their long runs so we figure, if they can do it, we can too. 

Having only run for the last month I figure I am going to go out and run my own race.  Aaron, who invited me to race, doesn't run as many miles per week as me so I figure he would be a good person to run with to help pace me.  The other two, well, they have run a lot more then me so I wasn't going to run with them.  I figure they would run a much faster pace and I would not be able to keep up.  My goal? Complete 4.4 miles in under 40 minutes.  That would be a 9 minute mile pace.  That wouldn't be two bad.

At the start Aaron and I head out together.  The other two started further up in the pack and take off.  We are running at what I figure is a good pace.  I was comfortable.  We hit mile marker one and I look a the time, 7:59.  Ut-oh, we are running a minute per mile faster then what was my goal.  I was comfortable so I didn't bother to slow down.  I was running at about 85% of my MHR, wasn't feeling winded and my legs weren't tired so I kept the pace. 

At about the 1.5 mile mark I lost Aaron.  I past a gaggle of girls and he got stuck behind them.  He never caught back up and I wasn't going to wait for him.  At about 2.0 miles, Alan, who has run a mini-marathon earlier this year, was in my sights.  He was one of the ones that took off earlier in the race.  He slowed to walk and I caught up with him.  We ran together for about .5 miles until he let off the gas and I left him.  At this point I had stopped tracking my time.  I was just watching my pulse and running a consistent pace.

At the 4 mile mark I passed Tony.  He was the other one in our company that ran.  He slowed to a walk to grab water.  I just kept pushing.  I wasn't sure of my time at all but knew that I only had .4 to go.  I wasn't going to wait up for anyone.

With the end in sight I pushed my pace a bit for the last 200 meters or so I thought.  It just felt like it.  I crossed the line at the 35:04 mark.  After wondering around, resting and eating some pancakes We checked the results.  I finished first of our 4 at 35:04 which is a 7:59 pace.  I was very consistent the whole race.  Aaron brought up the rear at 36:04 so he was a minute back.  Not bad for him as he claims to be a football player and not a runner.  The other two landed in between somewhere. 

All in All, it was a very good time.  I think 3 out of the 4 of us enjoyed the race and the results.  Unfortunately Alan didn't run a strategic race, ran too hard at first, so he did not get the results he had hoped for.  I think that frustrated him.  Oh, and me crossing the line in front of him didn't help either. 

I have attached my Nike+ IPOD results here.  You will see that it shows me running 4.56 miles in 38.47 miles at a 8:30 pace.  Unfortunately I forgot to unlock the IPOD before I tried to stop it so it calculated me standing around, getting water and resting for serveral minutes after I actually finished.  Just ignore the drastic drop off at the end of the graph. 

As you can see, I ran a very consistent race. I am very pleased with my first race. Next up, 5k (3.1mi) in September. I think a 7:30 pace will be my goal.