2006 Congress Avenue Mile

It sounded like a good idea when I registered for it, but I really didn't feel like doing this run today. I decided to be a trooper and go for it just to see if I could improve over my 6:08 from the fall of 2004. I met Amy, Brian, and Rich at mile zero for a planned 3-4 mile warmup. We ran to the Rock and then across to Congress and to the start. It ended up being about 4.8 mile warmup to the start line. We hung out at bit and then did some drills, and then a few sets of strides to get our heart rates up prior to the start. I was in the back of the pack of my 5 minute heat. The gun went off and I just tried to focus on my form with good arm swing. I crossed the quarter in 1:18, the half in 2:44, and did my last half in 3:06. I think I relaxed when I saw the clock near the finish and knew I was going to achieve a new PR and get sub 6:00. I finished in 5:50 which was 18 seconds faster than in 2004.

I watched the rest of the heats and then headed back to RunTex with Amy. We ran into G who told us to head out a 15-20 minute jog to help our recovery. We did a mile out and back and called it a day. I think this will be my last mile race for a very long time. I am a distance runner and my results showed it. I was barely in the top 50% of the overall results and just don't feel comfortable.

Stats - 7.78 miles with warm up, race, and cool down.