Final Notes from the Raspberry Run 1 Mile

I wrote my race report for the Raspberry Run 1 Mile 4 days ago pretty quickly, so here are 6 more final thoughts:

ONE: Not to be "that guy," but I can't help but think the race was a little long. There was chatter at the starting line that the starting line had been moved back a lot (IT HAD), but someone said "yeah, but the finish also moved up." But was it moved up? It feels like it didn't move, but I don't know. And ALL of my other Raspberry Run 1 miles have my Garmin showing exactly 1.0 miles (4 splits of 0.25 miles), and this race was the first time my watch beeped starting a 5th 0.25 mile split that was 2.3 seconds and 0.01 miles long. I had 5:00.9 after a "Garmin" 1 mile, so it's not that I'm bummed that I missed out on a sub-5:00.

... BUT another thought was that maybe my Garmin caught some interference in my fastest opening split. Did I really run that fast just after the race started? (I WAS being pulled by people passing me.) Or was it a "short" split which is why the race registered as long on my Garmin? My first split was my fastest, but not WILDLY so - but adding 2.3 secs to my opening split (the time I ran to the finish after my 4th 1/4 mile split) would make all my splits more evenly lined up.

Not a bad looking pace chart! That line is 5:00 pace.

TWO: I was 51 out of 168 overall in the first USA Track and Field (USATF) wave, but if you combine all the results with the 2nd wave as well, I would have been 72nd or 73rd out of 802. I was in the top 30% in my wave, but in the top 9% of racers overall. It's just been the past 2 years that they split the race into 2 waves (which has been GREAT).

THREE: The other thing that was "new" this year is that we had a noticeable breeze in our face for the race! The race is run straight east, so that's unusual! The boys and I really noticed it when we were warming up. And my Garmin tells me the race had a 12 mph wind from the east:

Upper right: 12 mph from the east.

FOUR: I never look at "cadence" or "stride length," but both seem to show me slowly hurting throughout the race. My cadence slows up, and I feel like I'm "clomping" my way through the end of a fast/hard race like this. And my stride length drops, but then stretches out longer and longer, again as I'm "clomping" as I'm dying:

FIVE: Charlie said he wondered if he could be in the top-10 of 11-year-olds, and he ended up 4th! (Third among boys as an 11-year-old girl finished just 2 seconds in front of him!) And in looking through the results, a 10-year-old ran a 5:54! (There were a few 9 and 10-year-olds in front of Charlie as well.) And Henry was the 2nd of all 14-year-olds! They didn't have age group results in the 2nd wave, so I don't have "normal" age group results for the boys, but I looked through the first few pages of results for the boys. Henry was 81st overall, and Charlie was 181st overall!

SIX: Like I said in my race report, I wonder how long before Henry is faster than me at the 1-mile distance. He's running CC for the first time this fall, so he will be entering some REGULAR training for the first time! Will that drop his 6:01 time down by 0:15? Or by 1:10? He really doesn't like pain, so the big question mark is how much he can "embrace the suck" as he trains more. We'll see what he can do after some real running and training!

Again, here's my race report if you missed it.