Charlottesville Men's Four Miler

Day 339 - December 5, 2009

Well, it wasn't exactly ideal racing conditions this morning. The temperature was about 38 and it was pouring rain. But, I had to run anyway right?

I ran a little over mile to warm up and my rain gear did a pretty good job of keeping me dry, but for the race I wanted to lose the baggy pants and jacket. It wasn't too bad at the start, but it was raining pretty hard. I inched up to about 10 rows from the start and was surprised when the gun went off that I didn't find myself wishing I had started closer to the front. I tried to hold back a little at the start, but hit the half mile split exactly on the 6:15 pace I was hoping to finish the race in. I guess that is better than being 20 seconds ahead of pace.

At the half mile point I started working my way up through the pack and reached the first mile mark in 5:58. Much quicker than I expected, bu I was feeling good.

And then the snow started.

I finished the race in the snow/rain mix by hitting the half way mark in 12:10 and the third mile in 18:25. The last mile was a struggle to maintain my pace, but I held on for a 6:20 last mile and final time of 24:45. After catching my breath I walked back onto the course and cheered on many friends who ran either their first or fastest 4 milers today. I have to say it got pretty cold waiting for them to finish.

The race organizers did a great job with the race and made the smart call to cancel the awards ceremony. I have no idea what my overall place was, but I assume it was a top 30 performance. The results should be online in the next day or so and I'll post an update. But, my unofficial 24:45 was 15 seconds faster than my goal time of 25 minutes. I thought I'd get to use the weather as an excuse - now I've ruined any chance of using it in the future. If I can run a good race today, I can't really anticipate worse weather for a race.

UPDATE: Official results put me in 23 place overall in 24:45. That was good enough for third place in my age group - Nice!