Sunday was the Retro 4 miler, dedicated to celebrating the early days of running with long hair, cotton t-shirts and sweat bands. It was a lot of fun despite the extreme humidity and rain at the end. The temperature was cool, in the 60’s but the humidity was really brutal. New York Road Runners reported that the temp was 66 and the humidity was a sticky 81%. I really felt it.
The plan was to shoot for 30 minutes for the 4 miles which works out to at 7:30 average per mile pace. I wasn’t 100% sure that I was recovered enough from the Half to really pull that off but I wanted to at least go out close to that and see if I could hang on.
I got in a good warm-up, 1.5 miles with a few stride outs, leg swings, and some good stretching. I felt as ready as I could be and took a moment to dedicate my race to the memory of my step-dad’s father who passed away last weekend. We also took a moment to recognize the passing of the great Muhammad Ali with the full quote of his definition of “impossible.” It was a great way to start a race!
I was running with my friend Dahemia who is a little faster than me but I was hoping to keep up with her. I lost her about a half mile in so I was on my own most of the race. Mile 1 was 7:40 as was mile 2. Halfway through and I was only off by 20 seconds and still on pace for a PR so I figured I was in as good shape as I could be.
But then came Mile 3… There weren’t huge hills or anything but the rolling hills and humidity really took their toll, especially when the hot flashes kicked in at about 2.5 miles. My head was over-heating, almost throbbing with extra heat. I knew it was humid and I tend to get a little dehydrated so I made sure to take water at every water stop, even the first one that I usually skip. Once the hot flashes started I took two cups, one to dump on my head and one to sip. That really made a difference and even though Mile 3 was an 8:15, well off the pace, I was able to push through, pick it up to 7:58 for the last mile and finish with a 31:40 overall for a PR and 18th in my age group out of 246.
Not bad considering the conditions. I was a bit dizzy after I finished for about an hour, but an apple, water and Gatorade helped recovery. Could I have pushed a little harder? Probably, but the lesson for me today was the fact that even after I had a pretty tough mile, I knew that was going to be my slowest mile because of the hills and I was able to pull myself together and even though I was still off pace, I pushed through and ran faster in the last mile than I did in the 3rd. I know I have more in me and I just need to be better about tapping into that during races.