Missed a Personal Record today in Central Park by ONE SECOND! Ran really strong for the NYRR Team Championships today – Ran a solid 38:46, or a 7:45 mile – My splits, if you care, were really decent… 7:50, 7:30, 7:42, 7:46, and 7:11, averaging out to 7:45. I’ll take it. One thing I am happy about – check out my heartrate below – that I held an average 162 tells me that my conditioning is paying off – and that my weight is dropping! That thrills me to no end. Also – note that I floored the last mile at a 7:11 – which makes me think it’s possible to do that more – perhaps not for a full 10k, but can definitely, definitely get faster. Time to pump up the speed work. (pump up the speed work, pump up the speed work, pump up the speed work… dance! dance!)

Of course, because this was the Team Championships race, i.e., only recognized running teams were allowed to compete (no amateurs,) this put me solidly towards the bottom of the pack – 23 out of 27 male Harriers, and 620 out of 777 men overall. (This race wasn’t co-ed, the women raced after the men did.)

So normally I’d be all pissed about 23 out of 27 – but it was a solid 23 – was my first sub-8 five miler ALL YEAR (about damn time!) and I’ll take it. I’m actually quite pleased with it. Makes me think that the rut is truly over, and now the speed-work will matter for the rest of the year. So this makes me happy.

BTW – here’s our team:

We’re not a bad bunch, huh? We’ve got some really fast, and really hot people on our team. (How they let me in, let alone voted me onto the board, is beyond me.) :)

Off to see David Beckham kick things at Giants Stadium!