Road Runner

I've been a member of the New York Road Runners Club since sometime in 1994. I always enjoyed participating in their "races," not as a competetive runner (I'm exceedingly slow by race standards as I'll document below) but just as a way of pushing myself a bit and mainly for fun. Today I ran in the Snowflake 4 miler, and although we just got a load of snow yesterday, no precipitation was falling today during the race. It was my first race since 2003, back when I was dreaming of running in the NYC marathon but didn't quite make it there. I'm working toward that goal again now. I need 9 races this year to get automatic entry for the 2009 marathon. That part is easy. The hard part is then getting my mileage up to a point where I am physically ready for the marathon.

One nice benefit of the club is that they keep all your race history on file and available online. So I can look at my performance today and compare it to how I was doing in the past. Of course the drawback is that I can look at my performance today and compare it to how I was doing in the past! What a difference 14 years makes. Back before the kids were born (pre-1998) I was consistently running sub 8-min miles, for 3 & 4 mile races.

Today I really thought I was moving fast and pushing myself, when much to my disappointment I looked at my watch at the one mile mark and saw - 10 minutes. Wow. Of course the first part of the course is always slow going as the crowded starting field gradually thins out, so I finally finished the race at 36 minutes - a 9 minute pace overall, but boy was I huffing and puffing over that final mile. If the mile markers were accurate and we take away the first mile, the final three were at approximately 8:40 pace, which isn't that far off the old marks. Pretty much in line with the 2002/2003 marks I was turning in as I was dreaming of the marathon. Of course I was about 10 lbs heavier then, so I'm a little concerned about the apparent effects of aging on my body. I will definitely be looking for improvement over the next few months as I get back into my training.