Fred Lebow Classic

I’ve run about 10 miles in the past 2 months, so I wasn’t expecting anything great on Sunday. My conservative goal was 50 minutes. I didn’t set any other goals.

I got to the start a little late and didn’t have time to find the baggage area, so I strapped on my backpack and ran with it. This made it feel even more like a training run, rather than a race.

We started on the big downhill in Central Park. Most of the NYRR races start near there, which means you can never really take advantage of the downhill because there’s too much traffic at the start.

I got to the first mile marker at 11 minutes. I guess that it was really about 9:30, estimating my time to the start line at about 1:30 or so). I hit mile 2 at 20 minutes and mile 3 at 29. I had a few bursts of energy, but they faded quickly. On the whole, I just felt average. Around mile 3.5, I had a spot where I felt exhausted, almost wanted to shut it down. Every race has one of these moments. I tried to really be aware of it on Sunday, knowing that the feeling during the marathon will be 100 times stronger. Anyway, I fought through it and picked it up a bit to the finish. No sprint or anything - didn’t want to hurt myself on the first race of the year :-)