Bust a Mile

Triathlons are great and all, but part of me still misses running. Somehow suffering through a 10k at the end of a triathlon doesn't really cut it. Two weeks ago after running 5:44 for one of my mile repeats I decided I would hop in the Pearl Street Mile to see what I could bust out. Aside from 20x200 on the cinders last Thursday I went into today solely on tri training, where my running workouts consist mostly of 4xmile every other week.

I drove up to Boulder with Ofer who also ran the race just for kicks. Pearl Street was hopping, and after the kids, family & friends, and masters' waves went off I took to the line with the Elite Women. My starts are still sticking with me from my 800m days, and when the siren went off I bolted without a thought and found myself leading (!) the first 100m. I settled in around 250m and tried to maintain my spot in 4th place. Top 5 were awarded prize money. Went through the 1/2 somewhere around 2:37 and then started the gradual hill up to the finish. I dropped back into 7th or so, my legs wondering what was going on. I crossed in 5:32 and my lungs KILLED. For the next 15 minutes I thought I had done permanent damage. Imagine the feeling after racing indoors, but then amplify it by a magnitude of about 100. All in all not too shabby for a mile on a whim.