Going into this race I had no clue of where I was in my progression of fitness from taking time off in the winter and not training as hard as I have been training during the past few years, due to the working lifestyle. I guessed beforehand 14:50 but that was without knowing anything about the course, the weather, this year's competition or my own fitness.
The race was in Haddonfield, NJ. A nice town, pretty upscale, sort of like driving through Princeton's main street with Westover Hills surrounding it. The race course was a pretty simple lollipop-style out and back starting at the high school. The first mile felt pretty good and comfortable, but I anticipated that it would get a lot harder once we got deep into the race. We went through the mile in about 4:50 with a big pack, and the eventual winner (Phil Celona) surged and got some distance that he kept for the remainder of the race. That surge broke up the race a bit and I stayed in third through two miles (another 4:50) and until about 200 to go. Two Bryn Mawr guys rolled by me in the homestraight and all of us passed the guy who ran second most of the way so I got 4th. First was 14:45, 2nd/3rd were 14:50 so it was not a total blowout.
I don't have the endurance I would ideally have; when I was in good shape last fall I would feel uncomfortable at these paces but be able to kick hard over the last 800 or so. I do not have that right now. However, this race has gotten me to focus even more on running for the next couple months. I am determined to run as well as I can at Broad Street given my constraints. The immediate first step is to start fixing all of these little aches and pains that I've been accruing over the past few weeks with some beginner strengthening routines. Other than that I will continue to work out focusing on the endurance and paces necessary for a good 10 miler.
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