Garden

Bittersweet day at the Garden ten miler.  I ran as hard as I could and did pretty well for about 6.5 miles.  From mile 6.5 to nine I really struggled.  The seven to nine splits for me were 7:36, 7:12, and 7:36.  These are the hilliest and hardest miles of the race but in years past I could find another gear to do this section quite a bit faster.  As an example of my fade over the second half at the five mile mark I was about five seconds behind my buddy Tom, but at the finish he was 37 seconds ahead of me. 

That being said, every year the goal is to break 70 minutes.  That gets a bit harder each year as I grow old as fuck, not to mention the new course which I think is slower than the old one.  I was able to rally somewhat over the final mile, running sub six (the final mile is a screaming downhill) to finish in 1:09:48.  And since they take out the top 500 masters runners, I scored a nice drinking vessel for first place in the 40 to 44 age group (I was sixth master and they pull the top five masters from the age group awards).  So while Tom may have won the battle, he got a shitty TV dinner tray that says 4th place on it while I got a mason jar that says first place on it.  So there's that.

Someday I will no longer be able to break 70 on this course.  But not this year.  (Probably next year unfortunately...).

Relive 'Garden'