Race Report: Fifth Avenue Mile, September 8, 2019

I ran the Fifth Avenue Mile today, finishing in 5:25, which tied my PR.

This was the grand finale in my series of road miles, which have served as both an early phase of my marathon training and a goal in themselves.  The Fifth Avenue Mile course was also the fastest course I'd be running on, since it has no turns, and only mild elevation changes.  And based on my previous performances on slower courses, I thought I had a solid shot of breaking 5:30 here, if I ran a smart race.

Of course, as sometimes happens, life threw a curve ball at me.   One of our cats, Quartz, started acting a little quieter than normal on Friday night.  She then had a sneezing fit overnight (which I slept through, but Brian didn't) and then had no interest in food or play in the morning.  That was my cue to run her over to the emergency vet on Saturday morning, where she had a temperature of 105 (normal for a cat is between 100.5 and 102.5).  They admitted her and ran some bloodwork, showing depressed white blood cells (but otherwise normal blood values).

I went back and forth on whether to skip my trip up to NYC for this race (my plan was to leave Saturday afternoon and come back Sunday early evening).  After checking the train schedules, I decided to go up, and just return early on Sunday.  It was a hard call, but she was stable and in good hands and what was important was that I was available by phone, not whether I was physically in Virginia.  Additionally, there were enough trains with open seats that if I needed to I could easily be back home within a few hours.

So...I hopped on my train up to New York, where I first stopped by the NYRR Run Center to grab my bib and shorts (this race gave out shorts instead of a t-shirt - odd, but whatever).  Then onto my hotel.  Once there, I set out my clothes for the morning, and double checked train schedules for Sunday.  My scheduled departure was 2:15 pm, but there were trains at both 9:05 and 9:45 am that I could swap to.    I knew I could make the 9:45, and had a good shot of making the 9:05 if I hustled post-race.  

After a restless night of sleep, I woke.  Ate my breakfast and did my pre-race stretching routine, and then packed up for a quick get-away post-race.  I also called the emergency vet to check on Quartz - they reported that she had done OK overnight, but was scared.  With that news, I decided I'd definitely try to get on the 9:05 if at all possible.

***

My hotel was a bit less than a mile from the finish line, which meant I was about 2 miles from the start.  This worked perfectly for my warm-up - I jogged about 2 miles (20 minutes - GPS is useless in Manhattan) and then did a warm-up of:
-3:00 at half-marathon/10 mile effort; 
-4x30 seconds at a bit faster than 5K effort with 30 second jog, and then 
-4x10 seconds at end of mile effort with 20 second recovery. 

 [this was a twist on my normal warm-up - I did everything slightly harder than normal because of the short distance of the race.  For a 5K, this would have been done at half-marathon, 5K, and first part of mile effort].

Then some drills, four strides, and with 8 minutes to go I started to think about loading into the corral.  I knew that I needed to start at the front; unfortunately, they were only allowing us to enter from the back, which meant I spent a good 4 minutes of that 8 working my way through the corral from back to front with a non-stop narrative of 'scuse me/pardon me.

But finally, I was there.  I noted a few other runners that I was familiar with, and one runner that looked a lot like Jen Rhines and was wearing an Adidas elite kit.   I lined up behind her.  She was lined up in the center but slightly to the left, which worked for me - my friend Boyd had tipped me off that staying in the center and slightly to the left was the way to go on this course - smoother pavement on that side.

***

We waited for a few minutes, and then we were off.  My plan was to hit a good rhythm the first quarter - "controlled aggression" was my mind set, and then start building as we hit the second uphill quarter.  Stretch tall and flow down the decline on the third quarter, relying on my downhill running skills, and then throw a 1-2-3 punch at the 1200m, 1400m, and 1500m marks - digging the way I did in the Liberty mile and did not in the USATF mile.

Like always, I was massively dropped in the first 200m.  Might-be-Jen Rhines surged way in front, which pretty much confirmed she was indeed Jen Rhines.  And a whole group went with her - there were probably about 20 women ahead of me.  It took some discipline, but I held my rhythm and let them go.  I've learned that road miles like this one tend to attract a lot of distance runners who don't understand that a mile is too long to sprint.  So...they sprint the first 200, and then realize their folly around 300-400 into the race.

(Of course, I'm talking like I'm an experienced mile specialist, when the truth is nothing of the sort.  But still, I'm guessing I've raced more miles than your average adult-onset marathoner, so I've got some experience.  Relatively speaking.)

And sure enough, people started spluttering around 300-400m in.  Which was also when we hit the small climb.  Which worsened the carnage.  I started my build here, weaving around ragged breathing runners.  I snuck a glance at the 400m clock and saw it clicking over 80 seconds, which was just about perfect.

As we approached the crest of the hill, I bumped up a gear to fly over the top, passing several more runners.  I felt in control, with a gear or two left, and I could tell from the the breathing around me that those that I was passing were in trouble.  I was starting to feel the pace myself, but I felt right on the edge of my control - I really wanted to slow down, but I also knew I had another gear left.

Similar to marathoning, I held my form and my rhythm, trying to relax forward rather than tense up.  Marathoning and miling are the same fable, just different fonts.  

During the third quarter, I reeled in another woman, and then there was only the far ahead pack in front of me, with a bit more than 400m to go.

(huge thanks to Jessica Chin for this video of me on the downhill (I'm in the red singlet)).

This woman didn't go down without a fight - throwing in a surge that passed me back just as we approached the 1200m marker.  This was very helpful, as it kept me fighting.  I stretched up and pulled her back in, and then gritted my teeth and dug a bit deeper at the 200m and 100m to go signs.  By 100m to go, I was just starting to tie up.  That was good - it told me I had paced this just about right.

(and thanks to Christy Peterson, the winner of this heat last year, for this video of my finish)

(the astute observer will note that I eased up at the finish, and didn't fight through both mats. Not good)

I got myself over the finish line - satisfied with a good race and a good end to this segment of my season.  My watch said 5:26 which meant I had just missed my PR of 5:25.  But I wasn't too upset - I would have been happy with anything under 5:30.

***

I said a few quick hellos and congrats while I caught my breath, and then jogged back to my hotel.  12 minutes later, at 8:15 am I was showered, changed, and in a cab on the way to Penn Station.  While in the cab I used my phone to officially swap to the 9:05 am train and check out of my room (as much as a curse as modern technology can be, it's still ridiculously handy).

I also finally had a chance to look up my splits for the race. They were 81/85/80/80 (using Garmin autolap).   I think the last split was actually 79, as I didn't stop my watch until I was well past the finish line. I was pretty happy with the pacing.  I would have loved to have closed slightly harder and a second faster, but this was still pretty good.

Other notes:

• The temp was 66, with a dew point of 56.  Felt absolutely perfect after a DC summer.
• Turned out that the Jen Rhines look alike was indeed Jen Rhines, who ran 5:04 to win the heat.  Neat!
• I finished fourth in the heat, and second in my age group (to Jen Rhines).  I'm pretty happy with this - looking at the results, that's realistically the best I could have placed this year.
• While this is unquestionably the fastest mile course I've run this year, I think my fast performance here is also due to the fact that I travelled up the day before, and didn't have several hours of driving and/or flying right before the race.  I also just run better in the morning.
• Something's blooming in Central Park right now - my eyes were watering and my voice was really hoarse.  Fortunately I don't think it affected my race at all.
• The best news of all was that Quartz improved massively, and I was able to bring her home on Sunday night.  Keep your fingers crossed for her, please.