July 4, 2012 - 1:53 pm
Nailed this race this year! It was my fourth year running it and I crushed my previous best time by over five minutes! It’s generally a slow race for me because it’s on the 4th of July and typically falls outside of any real race training, but today, I was on and felt great. I kept a 6:35 min/mile pace which is better than my best 5k pace!
I came in 4th in my age group and 52nd overall, but even better, my wife and I won the husband and wife group! She ran an amazing race too and was just over 30 minutes total, a two minute PR for her. We had looked at the husband and wife times for the last few years and felt like we had a good shot to place, but didn’t think we’d quite win it. It was super exciting to hear them announce our names though.
July 5, 2011 - 9:17 am
Yesterday was the annual Firecracker 4 miler in Cranford which my fiancée and I run each year. It’s a fun race, but being that it’s on the 4th of July, it can be very hot and humid. Luckily, yesterday wasn’t too bad. I enjoy the course quite a bit and there are generally plenty of people sitting on the side the road spraying you down with a hose to keep you nice and cool. Very appreciated. The race is also pretty well organized and you get a pint glass along with your t-shirt. Good stuff.
Yesterday also marked the two year anniversary of the first race my fiancée ever ran. However, in those two years, we’ve never once actually run together for a race, so I decided we should give it a shot (there was some prompting from her for this). It was fun running a race with her and she kept a good pace too, I was impressed. She ended up with a new PR for 4 miles at 32:49. As we approached the finish line we held hands and I stopped just before line and let her go across first.
Generally, I try to give it everything I have when I run a race and shoot for a new PR each time, but with the ankle still not fully healed, it seemed like a good idea to take it easier and not shoot for anything crazy. I would like to run a 4 mile race again soon though for a PR, I think I can do close to 26 minutes. Which is crazy because my time for the Firecracker last year was only 1:06 faster than yesterday with the fiancée. This says a lot about how far we’ve both come in the last year. She took almost two minutes off her time and I’m not looking at running 5-mile and under races at close to 6:30 minute/mile. Crazy.
This race also kicks off the official start of our marathon training. Exciting.
Vibram Five Finger KSO total mileage: 421.67
Nailed this race this year! It was my fourth year running it and I crushed my previous best time by over five minutes! It’s generally a slow race for me because it’s on the 4th of July and typically falls outside of any real race training, but today, I was on and felt great. I kept a 6:35 min/mile pace which is better than my best 5k pace!
