Colon Cancer 15K Challenge - 3/22/09

I can't believe it, but I scored another PR, this time in the Colon Cancer 15K Challenge this past weekend. In addition, this is the second time ever that I achieved an Age Graded Performance of over 60%. It was a good day all around :) This continues to be a very good running streak for me and I just want to enjoy it for as long as it lasts. Usually, it takes me until later in the year to get "back up to speed", but I've had two great races so far this year in both the 10 mile and 15K distance. I've made sure not to overdo it at the beginning of the year, especially after running the Philadelphia Marathon in November, and it seems to be working for me. I continue to run 3 days per week (including a 10 mile run), spinning one day, and strength training one day.

The 15K is not one that is run too often, so it is hard to have an opportunity to get accustomed to it, let alone try for a PR. Therefore, I get excited when there is a 15K race, since there are only two or three of them per year in Central Park. My previous PR at this distance was in 2006, and I knew that it would be very tough to better my time from that day. I ran a 7:31 pace that day and just felt "on" - never really felt tired and was strong throughout. It would take perfect conditions to try and beat that time.

On Sunday, I ended up running a PR of 2:24, for an overall time of 1:07:37 and pace of 7:16. This was the second fastest race (based on mile pace) that I have ever run, regardless of the distance (fastest being the Run As One 4M race last year at 7:03 pace). The weather was perfect for me. It was very cool and the start of the race had temperatures that were in the low 40s. I was looking to have a strong race, but was in no way looking to go out and beat my previous best time. The first few miles I went out strong, trying not to go out too fast, and was able to keep up a pace of around 7:30. At that point, I felt good and thought I should give it a go to keep up this pace for the rest of the race. If I was able to do so, I knew that a PR was in the realm of possibility.

The strong miles kept on coming one after the other, even on the hills where I made sure to conserve my energy a bit. If I could continue this pace through six miles, I knew that I would have enough left to go faster in the remaining three miles, since I was able to accomplish that in the Cherry Tree 10 miler the month before. The sun was coming out more towards the end of the race and warmed me up a bit, and gave me some renewed energy. I picked it up towards the end and was able to run the last three miles in 7:04, 7:14, and 6:54 (for the last 1.3 miles). I couldn't believe how strong I felt at the end and that I bettered my best time in this distance by a considerable margin.


Mile Splits:

Some of the mile times look a little too fast to me, so there was probably a couple mile markers that were in the wrong place

Mile 1 - 7:40
Mile 2 - 6:50 (mile was probably too short)
Mile 3 - 7:54 (mile was probably too long)
Mile 4 - 7:19
Mile 5 - 7:21
Mile 6 - 7:17
Mile 7 - 7:04
Mile 8 - 7:14
Last 1.3 miles - 8:58 (6:54 pace)

Total time - 1:07:37 ; Overall pace - 7:16

This race, along with the 10 miler from last month, has started to give me the confidence that I have the ability to go out strong in a longer race, and be able to sustain it throughout. In the longer races, I usually feel the need to start out slower and build up throughout the race for fear that I would fall apart at the end. The fact that I was able to run a pace of 7:30 and 7:16 for my past two 10 mile and 15K races, on tough, hilly courses, let's me know that I have the ability to handle a fast pace in a longer race - maybe I should experiment with a slightly more agressive strategy when running a half marathon and see if I can handle it.