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<b>Intro</b><br>
This morning was my first 4-miler ever. My goal was to either run it in 40 or under or, even better, to run it at a 9:30 pace. I did a 5K a couple of months ago at 9:22 m/m, so it was kind of a stretch goal. My strategy was to run the following splits: 10:30, 10, 9:30, 9. Which is probably a poor race strategy, but I'm still figuring things out here. <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif"><br><br>
For the 4th of July, I wore a pair of American flag shorts that I got from Soark. They were super-cute!<br><br><b>Chip-Timing?</b><br>
The race was kinda chip-timed. We wore some large clear circular chips on our shoes that had to have a certain marked side turned up in order to get our times. But, I swear that at the start there was only what looked like a large floor mat that didn't even cover the entire start line, so while I know my foot touched that mat, I'm not even sure it was important and I know that a lot of people got nowhere near the mat.<br><br><b>The Race</b><br>
The streets were narrow and I was at the very back, so I had to wait possibly 1 or 2 minutes to get to the actual start.<br><br>
Mile 1, I was feeling okay. I had run 10:30s the day before and this felt about right. The time clock said 11:00 as I passed which was fine since this was, ya know chip-timed and it took me a while to get to the start.<br><br>
Mile 2, I picked it up a tad. However, I can't recall what the official time clock said. I think it was 21 something which again was good.<br><br>
Mile 3, I see a woman that beats me at every race further ahead of me and when she sees me at a turn around she motions me to pick it up. I keep telling this woman at every race that I will come in before her before the year is up; because we are both considered slow, she takes it as a compliment that I consider her competition. Okay, so now my plan is to definitely catch up to her which helps me through a slightly uncomfortable mile. Official time clock says (again, my memory is failing me) I think 30 nearly exactly and that is fine.<br><br>
Mile 4, I just focus on that woman's back and on the people that are breathing behind me. One guy manages to pass me around a corner and positions himself directly in front of me, so I have to go all the way around him and do a quick sprint to give myself some room (I HATE that!). Fortunately, this kinda helps me go even faster and before you know it I am reeeeal close to the woman I want to beat. I hear someone saying we're getting close to the finish and that 8:17 has elapsed in the mile and this woman was behind me, so this is good. My legs are feeling wobbly at this point, but I can't slow down when I am so close. I ignore the wobbles and get right next to the woman I wanted to beat, gave her a big ol' smile and sped past and now, the finish is super close, but the people in front of me are going too slow, so I even passed more people before finishing in???<br><br>
See, by this point, I felt so awful, I couldn't even focus on anything other than moving my body forward, so I didn't really look at the time. I know that after I had walked up, got my chip taken off, and hobbled over to the other side, the clock read 42 something, so I'm thinking it's likely that I accomplished my goal.<br><br><b>The Results<br></b>The results are finally posted and my name isn't even on them! Neither is the name of the girl that I started the race with. A friend of mine who is actually on there told me that they used her gun-time. There were rumblings of the course being 0.1 miles too long and that many people's chips weren't recording, so basically, I have no idea what my actual time was. I am so pissed! I swear that had to be one of the best races I've ever ran in terms of effort and I have a big ol' nothing to show for it. <img alt="angry6.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/angry6.gif"><br><br>
I will check online tomorrow to see if they've figured something out, but I fully expect it to be wrong either way.
This morning was my first 4-miler ever. My goal was to either run it in 40 or under or, even better, to run it at a 9:30 pace. I did a 5K a couple of months ago at 9:22 m/m, so it was kind of a stretch goal. My strategy was to run the following splits: 10:30, 10, 9:30, 9. Which is probably a poor race strategy, but I'm still figuring things out here. <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif"><br><br>
For the 4th of July, I wore a pair of American flag shorts that I got from Soark. They were super-cute!<br><br><b>Chip-Timing?</b><br>
The race was kinda chip-timed. We wore some large clear circular chips on our shoes that had to have a certain marked side turned up in order to get our times. But, I swear that at the start there was only what looked like a large floor mat that didn't even cover the entire start line, so while I know my foot touched that mat, I'm not even sure it was important and I know that a lot of people got nowhere near the mat.<br><br><b>The Race</b><br>
The streets were narrow and I was at the very back, so I had to wait possibly 1 or 2 minutes to get to the actual start.<br><br>
Mile 1, I was feeling okay. I had run 10:30s the day before and this felt about right. The time clock said 11:00 as I passed which was fine since this was, ya know chip-timed and it took me a while to get to the start.<br><br>
Mile 2, I picked it up a tad. However, I can't recall what the official time clock said. I think it was 21 something which again was good.<br><br>
Mile 3, I see a woman that beats me at every race further ahead of me and when she sees me at a turn around she motions me to pick it up. I keep telling this woman at every race that I will come in before her before the year is up; because we are both considered slow, she takes it as a compliment that I consider her competition. Okay, so now my plan is to definitely catch up to her which helps me through a slightly uncomfortable mile. Official time clock says (again, my memory is failing me) I think 30 nearly exactly and that is fine.<br><br>
Mile 4, I just focus on that woman's back and on the people that are breathing behind me. One guy manages to pass me around a corner and positions himself directly in front of me, so I have to go all the way around him and do a quick sprint to give myself some room (I HATE that!). Fortunately, this kinda helps me go even faster and before you know it I am reeeeal close to the woman I want to beat. I hear someone saying we're getting close to the finish and that 8:17 has elapsed in the mile and this woman was behind me, so this is good. My legs are feeling wobbly at this point, but I can't slow down when I am so close. I ignore the wobbles and get right next to the woman I wanted to beat, gave her a big ol' smile and sped past and now, the finish is super close, but the people in front of me are going too slow, so I even passed more people before finishing in???<br><br>
See, by this point, I felt so awful, I couldn't even focus on anything other than moving my body forward, so I didn't really look at the time. I know that after I had walked up, got my chip taken off, and hobbled over to the other side, the clock read 42 something, so I'm thinking it's likely that I accomplished my goal.<br><br><b>The Results<br></b>The results are finally posted and my name isn't even on them! Neither is the name of the girl that I started the race with. A friend of mine who is actually on there told me that they used her gun-time. There were rumblings of the course being 0.1 miles too long and that many people's chips weren't recording, so basically, I have no idea what my actual time was. I am so pissed! I swear that had to be one of the best races I've ever ran in terms of effort and I have a big ol' nothing to show for it. <img alt="angry6.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/angry6.gif"><br><br>
I will check online tomorrow to see if they've figured something out, but I fully expect it to be wrong either way.
