Live in NYC now, which is another benefit. Spring in Dallas gets too hot for fast racing/training really quickly. Looking back on my old workouts most bad workouts are followed by some comment about how hot it was.
Lets go man! I'm haven't been on these forums for too long so I only just discovered this thread, but its incredible to see someone train for something for 7 years and then finally achieve their goal. It reminds me of the "too damn hard to run a sub 5 mile thread".
I recommend that you knock out this goal in the next year or two or it will never happen. Life happens, you work 1 or 2 jobs and you put on weight. Do it now when the desire and abilty are there. At 25 you graduate to old man status.
I recommend that you knock out this goal in the next year or two or it will never happen. Life happens, you work 1 or 2 jobs and you put on weight. Do it now when the desire and abilty are there. At 25 you graduate to old man status.
did you read the last post? I did it... also I'm 31 now
Unfortunately it was at an intra-club time trial instead of an official race. I had been scheduled to run at Penn Relays and then the Swathmore Last Chance, but I got COVID before Penn, and then Swathmore cut down the fields dramatically the morning of the race because of the weather forecast and I got cut.
The time-trial was a makeup for those on the club who got cut from Swathmore and anyone else who wanted to join in. We had almost perfect weather, about 70 degrees not much humidity, 7:45 pm and cloudy. There were probably 8 or 9 of us.
I don't have splits right now, my coach may be getting them to me. This is based on what I heard as it happened. We got out slow... 75 for the first lap. Then we steadily got back on pace but were 4:51, so three seconds off 15:00 at 1 mile. One guy led the first mile, then another next 800, then I took the next 800. I took the lead and ran a 70 and then a 69 which really broke things open. the next two laps were around 70, then I took the lead with 800 to go and powered home to "win" the race.
My legs never feel good in the leadup to a big race, but as soon as we started I felt great. I've always found that the best races feel easy... it's the just OK races that feel the hardest.
Sidenote, this is the third city I've lived in since starting this thread. I'm in D.C now
Unfortunately it was at an intra-club time trial instead of an official race. I had been scheduled to run at Penn Relays and then the Swathmore Last Chance, but I got COVID before Penn, and then Swathmore cut down the fields dramatically the morning of the race because of the weather forecast and I got cut.
The time-trial was a makeup for those on the club who got cut from Swathmore and anyone else who wanted to join in. We had almost perfect weather, about 70 degrees not much humidity, 7:45 pm and cloudy. There were probably 8 or 9 of us.
I don't have splits right now, my coach may be getting them to me. This is based on what I heard as it happened. We got out slow... 75 for the first lap. Then we steadily got back on pace but were 4:51, so three seconds off 15:00 at 1 mile. One guy led the first mile, then another next 800, then I took the next 800. I took the lead and ran a 70 and then a 69 which really broke things open. the next two laps were around 70, then I took the lead with 800 to go and powered home to "win" the race.
My legs never feel good in the leadup to a big race, but as soon as we started I felt great. I've always found that the best races feel easy... it's the just OK races that feel the hardest.
Sidenote, this is the third city I've lived in since starting this thread. I'm in D.C now
If you haven't already, check out Manassas battlefield for training. There is a 4.5 mile loop and a 8.5 mile loop, both with some small rolling hills. It gets way less crowded than the major training hubs around dc and its way more fun than the bike trails.
I've stuck with training, although I will say there was a bit of the fire that burned out the moment I ran that sub 15... That was the piece of unfinished business in my running career, if I would have torn my Achilles the next day and never been able to run again, I would have been at peace.
But I had a surprisingly successful 2023, punctuated by another 14:47, this time in an official meet, so it is nice to have an official sub 15 result by my name. I ran the Chicago marathon in 2:30.08 in the fall, just missing my PR from Boston 21' which was 2:29.52. I made the mistake of pushing miles 13-20 and I finally hit the wall for the first time and paid for it, losing the PR in the final mile.
Right now I've got a moderate but endlessly lingering hamstring injury. I'm hoping to beat it and have a good fall.
The real last thing on the running bucket list is sub 1:10 in the half marathon. And I've got a sub 5 minute mile streak that goes back to sophomore year of high school in 2006. I'm hoping to keep that going until 40.