Post-Race 1 Mile Thoughts

I don't have too much more to say after last weekend's "Raspberry Run" 1 mile. I went out hard, tried to hit my goal, was on track at 3/4 of a mile, but died before the finish and missed my PR by 3 seconds.

Pre-race, I shared my goals on Facebook, which I do NOT often do. My mom chimed in:

Post-race, I had an update. Here were 2 good comments:

I was 6th out of 21 in my age group and 39th out of 195 overall. Last year, I was 8th in my age group, and 57th overall, but this year the results were just from the USATF "Wave 1." If I looked at the rest of the race in wave 2 as well, I would have been 48th out of 625 overall, and still 6th in my age group, but this time out of 52 total.

LAST YEAR: 8th out of 58 in AG, 57th out of 550 overall.

THIS YEAR: 6th out of 52 in AG, 48th out of 625 overall.

Pretty similar. Maybe SLIGHTLY better this year.

So why did I die in that final 1/4 mile? What could I have done differently?

First, some of my track workouts were in crappy weather. Three of my last 4 interval workouts weren't perfect, and they kind of HAD to be to have a shot at my PR. I had an OK interval workout in the rain on June 21. Then I did some 200s in the POURING race on June 28th that was SO MUCH LESS THAN IDEAL. My decent interval workout was July 5th. And then my last hard pre-race intervals were on a paved trail up on a family vacation on July 12th. That last workout would have really benefited from being on the track (and I checked the local track, but it was all locked up).

Second, I wonder how much slippage there was because it was wet, and how much the humid/raining day hurt times. I found a Brandon K finishing near me these last 2 years, and he ran 4:48 last year and 4:50 this year. Patrick R ran a 4:36 last year, and a 4:42 this year. Benjamin S was 3 sec slower this year. Dan B was different by 1 second between the 2 years. But Dan P ran 4:58 last year and 4:51 this year. So there might be a SLIGHT trending towards slower times this year, but not crazy.

Third, I don't think I went out too hard at the race, but I question what going out a LITTLE easier would have done. My 1/4 mile splits from the race were 1:11.1, 1:12.0, 1:12.5, and 1:17.1 = 4:52. I wonder what that last split would have looked like if the first 2 splits were both 1 second slower - that would have had me just barely slower than PR pace at the 3/4 mile mark, but how much gas would I have had left in the tank? Could I have eeked out a 1:11.5 or faster at that point? I don't know. I need some sort of fitness calculator that can predict what I can do while changing splits from an actual race. As I said in my race report, I hit the line thinking it was 50/50 that I PRed, but then I was honestly a little shocked that it was THAT slow in the end. I was HURTING!

Oh, and Charlie had a good "cool down" in the shower provided by the fire department. Here's a pic from a friend's Instagram post, and it shows the massive "cone" of water in the background:

Charlie stood under that post-race for a while!

p.s. I mentioned pre-race that I was afraid I could be just under a PR but have the results rounded up to the next second, because it seems that's what they do. I wasn't in a place to have that be an issue because I was too slow, but it's confirmed that they DO round up. My official results were 4:52, but the "team results" just came out, and I was rounded up to 4:52 from 4:51.1: