Race Report: JackRabbit Battle of Brooklyn 10 Miler

Sunday was the 2nd Annual JackRabbit Sports Battle of Brooklyn 10 Miler in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. I hadn't raced anything since the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge in mid-June. Coach Jeff was nudging me to sign up for something to see where I was 69 days out from the Marine Corps Marathon. Summer training has been less than stellar but I, and Coach, thought I was in good enough shape to run around 1:15 (my current 10 mile PR is 1:19:50). As always, the wildcard was going to be the weather.

The race started shortly after 8:00 and I felt pretty good early on. After I finished my first loop of the park, I began to feel the effects of the heat and humidity. I saw my heart rate creeping up into the mid and upper 170s. A very dangerous range in ideal racing conditions let alone when it's 75 and 70% humidity. I realized that I needed to make some adjustments so I wouldn't blow up like I did in Vermont. One of the adjustments I made was to walk through the water stops, something I've stopped doing a while ago. I wanted to make sure that the fluid went down my throat and not up my nose. It also allowed my heart rate to come down a little bit. After cresting the big hill in the park for the last time, I dug deep and was able to run a 7:50 final. My official time was 1:19:50, an exact match of my current 10 mile PR.

When I was talking about the race on the New York Running Show Sunday night, Brenn asked me if I felt like I ran the best race that I could on that day. I answered that I thought I did. The weather was far from perfect and the adjustments that I made allowed me to have enough strength to finish strong. I also mentioned that I am not used to first starting a training run, let alone a race at 8:00 a.m. I am usually at the tail end of my run by 8:00 so my body is not used to running during warmer parts of the day. Hopefully it will be cooler for my next race, the Yonkers Half Marathon on September 18.