Ted Corbitt Frozen 15k

As with many races today was something of a major success and, at the same time, a little bit of failure. When I got to the race this morning, I found that the race was no longer and instead it would be a fun run. Thus no link to my official results...undaunted I still ran the 'fun run' and did pretty well given the conditions – Officially from the national weather service the temperature was 23 degrees with 7-10 MPH winds.

NYRR Ted Corbitt 15K

The NYRR Ted Corbitt 15K took place on Saturday, December 20, as an unscored fun run in Central Park, due to icy road conditions. (from the NY Road Runner's Web page).

For pictures of the race – click here

For pictures of me running the race - click here

Regarding my run – as per usual I went out too fast, that said it felt GREAT. And when I say great I mean I was running great splits (for me) all the way into the 8^th mile – as you can see here:

Mile	Time
1	08:13
2	07:22
3	07:25
4	08:13
5	07:41
6	08:05
7	07:51
8	08:24
9	08:12
0.3	02:48

Total time by the watch – 1:14:18 (could have been slightly less given the gloves factor) but it was a fun run so nobody cares, right?

Comments are that mile 1 was crowded and hilly. Miles 2 and 3 felt great. Mile 4 was hilly. Mile 5 through 7 were around the turn coming for home (but the bottom of the loop). Mile 8 – now that's the problem, but I think the wheels feel off a little bit there. Nice to see that I pulled some time back on the 9^th mile though, shaving 12 seconds off the previous mile. The finish was a bit slick and thus the 8:30 time on the last 0.3 mile.

One interesting tid bit, perhaps very interesting (please comment) for the more experienced runners; I had two gels with me, one which I ate before the start. And the second that I wanted to eat at 45 minutes. But I was so far ahead of my planned pace that I didn't eat it on the straight away (it was only 35 mins in) and instead thought about it at 45 mins (which was on a huge hill - so I didn't do it) and instead finished the race without. Saturday afternoon quarterback I think that I might not have struggled so badly on mile 8 and 9 if I'd taken the gel. Food for thought - pun intended...!

For more information on the course:

http://www.nyrr.org/races/2008/pdf/map_corbitt_08.pdf

Most importantly I stayed warm and finished the race – even though I'd hoped (especially during the 47 minute completion of the 6^th mile) to beat my personal best time of:

Distance (miles) Net Time Pace/Mile Overall Place Gender Place Age Place Age-Graded %

Colon Cancer Challenge 15K
March 9, 2008 Parks, Joshua M35 Brooklyn, 9.3 1:13:53 7:56 894 716 281 56.4 %

A final thought – I managed to accomplish a huge goal – always a goal really, but important when the miles get high of running faster than 8 minutes a mile on average. The Central Park course is particularly hilly, yada, yada, but it's always important to run faster than my goal (at this point) time for the NY Martahon in the Fall. Let's see how training goes, it's a long, long time away, (perhaps those 7:30 miles will start adding up?) but it's nice to see that I can sustain the goal pace and manage to finish the race with something left.

All in I'm proud of myself for making the effort. Seemed like many others just stayed in bed, and I certainly wanted to do so too!