Recap of RFYL RFYC 4 Miler

Fueled up on Mellow Mushroom pizza and a couple pints of beer at dinner, then while watching a movie in bed - decided to snag one more slice before i went to sleep. This was all done so I could sleep in and not have to eat breakfast!

I purposefully did a shorter warmup (1 mile), as I was thinking that perhaps I could save some energy and be just as warm as I would with going 2 miles (typical). It seemed to work. I got this idea after I felt like I ran better at Great Harvest 5k with no warm up.

Gun went off, and I found a comfortable pace posistioned accordingly amoungst the field. The people who should be in front of me were, and I just settled in. The first mile was uphill, and luckily my internal pace clock was on target as I hit 5.58 (just where I wanted to be). With the effort not feeling too hard, and having the climb out of the way, I made a push to drop the pace. I felt smooth as I ran down East Blvd., and here my racing partner for the day would come along side and really help me stay focused the rest of the race. An older man with a blue tank top, grey hair, and neon yellow shoes came up on me quick, and I just went with him. We both settled in after I decided to go with him, perhaps as he just wanted to do a surge and see if I would drop. I came through in 11.30 for 2 miles (5.32 split), and was pumped as I was running well and feeling well. The next mile sort of rolled along, and David Dye (His name I would later find out) and I ran side by side to bring home the third mile in 17.26 (5.56 split). I noticed that had this only been a 5k, I would have run a seasonal PR. With a mile to go, and my pace faster than expected, I battled with David the next half a mile as we rolled up our last hills. On the uphill I pulled ahead, and on the down hill he caught up and we ran together. He seemed to make a move with about a half mile to go, and I followed suit, opening up my larger stride and passing him back. Here I realized I was closing in on another runner, and tried to make up as much ground as I could. I seemed to have started my kick a little bit early, and the runner in front of me started his kick late....right when I got near, so I couldn't catch him. But I did stay ahead of David Dye. Closed the last mile in 5.53...not really fast, but the last half mile had to be much faster. Happy with my kick.

32 second improvement from the 4 miler back in March, so I'll take it.

18th overall out of 450+
Finishing time: 23.20

8 miles for the day (w/u+c/d)