Bellmore Striders Independence Day Run 2019

Last year, July Fourth was on a Wednesday, which meant I ran this race in lieu of the Al Goldstein 5K that would have been on that day. Of course, that means that this year, July Fourth was on a Thursday… the day after the fourth Al Goldstein race. I signed up for the whole Al Goldstein series, so I wanted to run it, but even if I found some other way to get to the park instead of running so that my total mileage over the evening of July 3 and the morning of July 4 wouldn’t be any greater than if I just did the AGSSS race as usual, racing two events thirteen hours apart doesn’t seem very wise. For someone with a body like mine, at least.

Of course, I could always just run easy for the first race, but A. that didn’t seem worth the trouble, and B. I have never run one of those over 21:59, and the temptation to keep that streak going would be too great. The obvious solution here was to pace someone else so that I had a reason not to run faster than I actually wanted to, but my would-be pacee wound up bailing on that plan, and Jimmy really didn’t want to see me on Wednesday night because he said he would pay me five bucks to skip AGSSS and PR on Thursday.

That shouldn’t have been too difficult, considering my 4 mile PR was set in December 2017, and is basically my current HM pace. But shit happens, and you never know. Still, I decided to go big or go home and attempt to run sub-26, because McMillan predicts 25:58 off my 5K PR. Yuk yuk yuk.

They’re not as obviously patriotic as the Launch 5 (at least, not from this angle), though I do like these better… which isn’t hard either, because the 5 was a disaster. These still feel kind of flat to me and wouldn’t normally be my first choice for a race I wanted to run fast, but it’s July Fourth, so I kind of had to wear them. Good thing my PR was soft!

(Side note: I went climbing instead of running the Al Goldstein race. When I left the gym everything felt fine, but by the time I got home my toe hurt. It still hurts. Though not when I’m running. Which is weird.)

As soon as I got out of the car, I thought that the weather felt a lot better than last year: it was a bit breezy and foggy, so kind of overcast, which is definitely preferable to sunny humid slop. But that changed really fast, and by the time the race started, the sun was beaming in full ecstasy. At least the humidity wasn’t quite as bad as last year.

I started out around 5K PR pace. Which is a bit too fast, but it’s only one additional mile (not even), and if I’m going for broke, I’m going to do it right. Besides, the heat will catch up to me eventually anyway, so yes, I’m probably banking time.

It was so hot, I even took water at a couple of the water stations. I don’t usually bother in shorter races, but this was just brutal.

I’m actually in this picture… towards the right side of the frame

There were quite a lot of people in this race, and even though I was lined up pretty much in the front, somehow, as always seems to happen, a bunch of people shoved their way ahead of me. Most of whom I ended up passing, and there was a timing mat at the start (I don’t think it was actually working, but nobody knew that then), so why the hell they felt like they had to do that, I do not know. But anyway.

It cleared up nicely around the one-mile point. I was surprisingly not feeling like I was running as fast as I was… yet. I kept trying to slow down a little, but apparently that’s the kind of thing that needs to come about naturally instead of my forcing it. And, of course, it did come about naturally in the second half of the race.

The two long straight stretches are great if you just want to mindlessly run fast, but they’re also… mindless. I find things like that mentally draining. And the sun, without the relief of much shade, is physically draining. Which is how I found myself playing the “if you run under 7:00 for the next [distance], you can still PR” game. I had no idea how many women were ahead of me, and I didn’t really care, because this was all about time, not place. And it was obvious that sub-26 wasn’t going to be happening, so I adjusted to sub-27.

Which did happen, thankfully.

This is funny to me because that’s what I would consider a decent 5K pace. It shouldn’t be funny because I’ve always known I’m better at maintaining a given pace for a longer distance than I am at running faster for a shorter one (AKA, my strength lies in endurance, not speed), but still.

Garmin recorded 4.04 miles in 26:47, 6:38/mi.

I distinctly remember my fumbling fingers having to make several attempts to stop my watch after I crossed the finish line, which is why I think the mats at the start weren’t recording anything:

Officially, four miles in 26:46, 6:41/mi. 49/654 OA, 11/304 F, and 2/23 F30-34. One AG spot lower than in 2018, but a gender spot higher and nineteen OA spots higher… and more importantly, 1:57 faster than last year, and a PR by 1:18.

So I think I can consider this a success, even though I missed my A goal. Because I’m pretty sure I could have met it if it weren’t so damn hot.