Mayor's Cup PR!

Saturday's Mayor's Cup race turned out to be an excellent run.

As mentioned, I'd fully intended to not race this event and be OK with something in the 27-minute range. The weather was overcast, and temps were in the 60s, so it was a great day for a run. My legs felt rested (with a week's rest, they'd better) and I had no hamstring pain going in, so I felt pretty good.

Not wanting to race, I entered the corral a little toward the back and got caught up in midpacker traffic. Add that to the tighter course at the outset, and it cost me a little time-- 4:30 was my initial half-mile split. I don't really know at what point I chose to get after it, but I really felt good out there, and began to think I could come in under 23 minutes. My half-mile splits improved each time, with my last two miles clocking 7:38 and 7:19. I deliberately kept my Garmin set to my distance and pace setting-- no stopwatch.

So I would up red-lining it, going about as hard as I could. I never noticed my sore hammie. One nice thing about starting toward the back is passing lots of slower runners. It doesn't help when you decide that a good number is there for the having. My Garmin time said 24:18, official time was 24:38, which was good for 80th male finisher, 87th overall. 15 seconds better than the previous Mayor's Cup PR, and in the top 8% of all finishers.

These are all good numbers and I am happy with them, but now I know a little more about what I'm capable of. I'll need under 7:30 miles to break 23 minutes. Sounds like a goal worth shooting for.