New Haven Road Race!

So today was the first racing conditions test of my marathon training. I signed up for the New Haven Road race, which is a 20kilometer (12.4 mile) race held annually on Labor Day. It was my fourth time running it, and it was really a great turnout.

Among some highlights, there were quite a number of runners who had run all 31 New Haven Road Races... I saw a former teacher of mine who had run 29 of the 31 NHRR's, and she said that the two she missed were when she had children! It was an amazing!

I started the race at a very slow pace, socializing more than anything to get warm and not to fall into my usual rut of going out too fast at the beginning of the race because of the crowd running effect.

About mile 2, one of the highlights of the race was the first patch of woods came up and a number of runners took advantage of it by emptying their bladders. I was amazed to see a woman running in a skirt go up to the grass and she squatted and pulled back her skirt and took care of #1 much faster than any guy I've ever known (somewhere less than 10 seconds). Way to go! I don't know what kind of trick she used, but she looked like she meant business.

I saw all my friends in the first 4 miles of the race and stuck with them for these beginning miles. Around mile 4.5, I decided that I was feeling good despite having worked for 24 hours prior to the race on an all-day call shift in the hospital, so I picked up the pace dramatically!

The best thing about starting in the back of the field is that no matter how fast/slow you're running, you're bound to be passing people for the duration of the race as they all get tired.

So this is exactly what happened today! It got me super-energized and I kept on pushing harder and harder each mile. My training runs have been with a heart-rate between 140 and 160, and today I ran for 2/3 of the race at a heart-rate above 170!

As I passed runners, I would randomly say hello to people and give encouraging remarks, and occasionally someone would pay back the favor! Around mile 9, we came on a slow down-hill and one runner yelled at me "go get 'em" as i passed him and that just did it for me! I thought "this is it.. now or never" and I started taking longer and faster strides and kept it up for the rest of the race!

The race course hugged the base of east rock park on a road called English Dr, and at the turn-off there was a band of bagpipers with their drummers that you could hear from 1/2 mile away! I always look forward to this spot as there is usually one or two bagpipers... when I heard them, it was just more fuel in the fire! I came around to the last home stretch of 1.5 miles and just picked up the pace even more!

When there were about 400 feet to go, I started to almost sprint and there was one runner that was left in front of me before the finish line... as I came up next to him, he started sprinting with me and sadly beat me to the finish line.

Nevertheless, I can truly say that I gave it everything I had in me today and I think I got my best time in the race yet! I approximately finished in 1:50, but the official time has yet to be posted. More details to come on this! Happy labor day!