Cherry Tree 10 Miler - First Race of 2009

This was my first race since the Joe Kleinerman 10K in the beginning of December and my first race of 2009. It was good to finally get back out there again. I signed up for several races in January/beginning of February but passed on them either due to the weather or lack of desire.

Although I felt good physically after the Philadelphia Marathon, I think it took me a little while to get into a post marathon "funk". I thought I could avoid it this time around but I think it is inevitable. After the 10K in December, I became a bit sluggish and didn't have the drive to run for a little while. I was running about 15 miles a week for a month and a half or so just to keep myself in a maintenance mode. After a marathon, you can't force yourself to get the "itch" again, it has to come naturally.

By the beginning of February, I was ready to start my longer runs again and get back on a schedule. My off-season strategy from last year seemed to work very well for me, so I was looking to repeat it again this year. By the beginning of February, I was back to running about 20-22 miles a week, and including a longer run of 9-10 miles each weekend, in addition to a day of spinning and strength training. This gives me plenty of rest at the same time I am able to slowly build myself back up.

When I heard about the Cherry Tree 10 miler in Prospect Park, it seemed to be a good first race back. I was finally back to feeling comfortable and running well on my own at the 10 mile distance again and it was a close race out of Central Park. As I did last year, I am looking to mix things up a bit and run some races outside of Central Park. This was my first race in Prospect Park and my first race in Brooklyn. I was excited about and I even managed a 10 mile PR! I didn't think I would get down this low again in a 10 miler - I did my previous PR in 2006 when I ran the NYC marathon. This was definitely a very good start to the year for me and gives me a good idea where I am at.

I was a little worried about the weather given the fact that Accuweather.com and Weather.com were both predicting rain all morning. However, the weather turned out great - very good running weather in the low 40s, cloudy, cool, and very light rain, which was very refreshing.

It is a three loop course that has a "Central Park" feel to it. I usually don't like doing three loop races (due to the usual tough second loop) but I liked this one alot. Since I didn't know the course at all, I tried to maintain a steady pace for the first loop to get a feel for the course. For a park that is only a little over three miles, there are two pretty big hills that I knew I had to watch out on the second and third time around. I tried to be smart and take the hills somewhat conservatively. It took me about the length of the first loop to feel comfortable out there, but I seemed to feel better and stronger as the race went on. I think the weather definitely had something to do with. I felt very good during the last loop and picked up the pace a bit and was even able to attack the hill located on the middle mile. My last mile was my fastest one, with a time of 7:00.

There were no chip times, only a gun time. Therefore, my overall "net" time of 1:15:02 is the time that I had on my watch (the "official" time on the PPTC website is 1:15:09). There was no starting line so it was hard to figure out when to start my watch. Either way, I beat my previous 10 mile PR by more than a minute and 40 seconds (previous best was 1:16:51).

Mile Splits

Mile 1 - 7:27 (might be off by several seconds since there was no starting line)
Mile 2 - 7:49
Mile 3 - 7:24
Mile 4 - 7:20
Mile 5 - 7:56
Mile 6 - 7:53
Mile 7 - 7:14
Mile 8 - 7:21
Mile 9 - 7:37
Mile 10 - 7:00

Total - 1:15:02 (my watch); 1:15:09 (official time on PPTC website)
Avg - 7:30