NYRR 4 Mile - Central Park

So, yesterday I ran the NYRR 4 Mile run thru Central Park.  It was a cool day, a brisk 44 degrees, which wouldnt have been so bad except for the RAIN!!  And the rain never let up at all, was a cold soggy 4 miles, but somehow managed to have my best run ever in my short running history!!!

Got to Central Park with my wife around 8AM and met up with Amy Shapiro shortly thereafter, who had run there from her house as warmup!!

Amy volunteered her time to come out and pace me for this run,and even in the crappy conditions came out to do this for me. 

Race started promptly at 9AM, my corral crossed the start line at around 9:08AM.  First mile was hard mainly due to a lousy hill called "cat hill".  Well instead of taking it easy up this hill, i tried to push myself, my quad didnt appreciate this much and soon after hitting the apex of this hill, my quad let me know! Mile 1 was sub 15:00 which I was quite pleased with!!

Miles 2-3 were pretty good, nothing as bad as Mile 1, there were some hills, but plenty of downhill time to make up for lost time.

Got to the 5K mark at 47:10 which was more than 2 minutes faster than my prior 5K PR!! Unfortunately by this point my Quad really was in pain and i started to slow down a bit, but when we got closer to that finish line  gave it my all and pushd myself to get thru tht finish line strong!

Amy crossed the finish line and i crossed 3 seconds behind her with a finish time of 1:00:13!!!!  I paced at 15:04 which CRUSHED my prior best 5K pace of 16:20!

Also met up with Dahlia from the RWOL forums afterwards who totally kicked butt during this race!!

This was my first New York Road Runners race of im sure MANY to come.  Even though the conditions were miserable, this surely will be a race I will remember for a VERY long time.

Amy, whom Im very priveleged to call a friend, taught me a very valuable lesson about Running in general.  Its not always about finishing for a prize, or finishing to set a PR.  Theres so much mor to Running than that,and just makes me appreciate the sport and my fellow runners that much more!

Next run is May 9th with Dean Karnazes during his Run Across America!

Thanx for taking the time to read this, and a BIG thanx to my friend Amy!!!!!!!