Back to the Track

In keeping with my current mode of trying new running things, I headed to the Icahn Stadium Track on Randalls Island last night for the final installment of New York Roadrunners Tuesday night summer race series. My running life began with two years of high school track, culminating with a 2:20 in the 800 meters, a 5:20 or so in the mile, and a 11:30 or so in the 2 mile---I came to running only late in high school and was quite out of shape when I started so I never had the chance to realize my track potential. My last trip to a track was for the Icahn Stadium series in the summer of 2005, when I ran in three separate meets there, competing twice in the 1500 and once in the 3000. My 1500 PR was 4:56 and my 3000 PR was 11:04. That of course was back before I had ever run a half-marathon or marathon, much less primarily focussed on them, so the 1500 and 3000 didn't seem like the sprint events that they do now.

So I headed to the track meet last night not really knowing what to expect. My only recent reference point was a 5K several weekends ago in 18:08 along with all of the other longer races I have run this year. I went back and looked at my running log from 2005 (yes, I've already conveyed my tendency to study the past before I race) for some clues about what to expect. My mile PR of 5:10 was set late that summer, but of greater relevance was looking at my 5K and 5 mile times from that summer, which were around 19 and 31 and a half minutes respectively. Seeing that I figured even though now I would be much more uncomfortable on the track and running short distances that I should be able to best my 1500 PR from 2005 since my most recent 5K time was now a minute faster and I had dropped my 5 mile time by a minute and half. Still I knew this was going to be a bit of a foreign experience so anything was possible, but I kind of fixated my mind around the 4:45-4:50 range.

I got in a three or four mile warmup running from Manhattan along the running path adjacent to the FDR and then across the pedestrian footbridge at 102nd to the island and then once on Randalls Island, along the run/bike path that runs along the river. I don't think I've ever run on Randalls Island (aside from on the track) before and as I ran along the path there I was thinking that it might be a pretty nice, quiet place to run. Unlike the path on the Manhattan side of the river there was no highway, car noises, and grime to contend with. So I made it to the track about twenty to twenty-five minutes before the meet was to start and paid my 10 dollars for all the events I could handle and got two or three entry stickers for the events I might run---at this point with a 5 mile race coming up on Sunday I was planning on probably just running the 1500, which was the first event, but left it up in the air to maybe run the 800 and/or the 3000 depending on how things were going.

I really wanted to warm-up well for this event since I expected it to feel very very fast to me so I ran four or five strides along the backstretch and a tempo-paced lap around the track to warmup some more. One thing I noticed immediately was how windy it was. Running down the backstretch was significantly easier than running on the far side of the track and around the final curve where the wind was coming off the river and blowing right at and around you. After making a stop at the batroom and water fountain, I made my way to the far side of the first curve on the track where everyone was starting to line up for the 1500. It was warm in the sun, but windy and cool in the shade, so I stood there as I waited. The women's heat of the 1500 went off first, followed by the fastest men's heat, which was comprised of people who walked up to the line when the started called times of 3:45 through 4:10---Fast, with a capital F, and not for me. So after watching that group blaze around the track I waited for the next call as a few people in the 4:20-4:30 range came up to the starting line as they got into the 4:40s and then called 4:50 almost no one else was budging but I finally did expecting that they would soon call more people with slower times as well. But alas they did not so I knew I was going to be right at the back of a pretty fast heat.

The gun went off and I felt pretty good right at the back of the pack in the first 200 to 300 meters and was wondering to myself, should this feel harder and faster? I think I had built the race up so much in my mind as a sprint that I was expecting it to feel like a 200 or 400 meter sprint the entire way. By the time I hit the finishing line for the first time, 300 meters into the race, I started to feel some tightness in the legs and realized that that was what was going to feel hard to me in this shorter race---not the breathing component, but that lactic acid would slowly build up and my legs would fatigue at this fast pace---something I was not used to. As I hit the 400 meter mark someone was calling out splits and I was at 72 or 73 seconds. It was a fast start but I thought it was about where I should be actually since I assumed that I would go out a little fast with the faster field and unlike when I used to race back in high school and listened to my coach tell me not to go out too hard, I was more afraid tonight of going out too easy like it was a 5K or something I was used to. In the second lap of racing I started to feel some of the burning in my legs, particularly in the hamstrings and most of the field had a good gap on me except for one person who I had just passed and was tailing me. I came around 800 meters in 2:31, so a little over 5 minute mile pace and expected as my legs tightened up more to fade. But throughout this whole time, it just felt so strange to me because I wasn't really huffing and puffing and struggling for air, but it was more a feeling of coasting along but just slowing down gradually as the lactic acid built. Eventually I came home in 4:46, which equates to about a 5:08 mile, as I almost closed a huge gap on one person who was tightening up and held off the guy who had tailed me the whole race in the wind to avoid last place in the heat. All in all I was relatively happy with the time given the circumstances and my expectations but I was also left with the feeling that I had hardly raced and that I could have pushed things a bit more. I'm not sure if that was the case or if I am just used to the longer drawn out struggle of road races. In any case I knew I had left at least a little something in the tank because I couldn't really rationalize the point of an all out kick that would leave me sore or injured somehow just for the purpose of shaving a second or two off my time in a pointless, fun, testing the waters, type of race.

After the 1500 I hung around the track for awhile contemplating what to do next. I really felt like I hadn't justified coming out to the meet yet and that it would be quite anti-climactic to leave so soon after I had arrived. So I hung around and watched the last heat of the 1500 (and saw no one it in beat my time so was glad I went in the heat I did even if I was at the back) and several heats of the 400 meters and jogged a bit to keep my legs loose. As the 800 meters came up about 20 minutes after I had finished I considered it but was just too uncertain of doubling back at another race and trying to run at an even faster clip than I had just run. So I let the event pass by and eventually decided I would stay for the 3000 and just see how it felt and do it as a hard workout without really pushing it in like a race at the end but try to at least be respectable and keep it at 5K pace or faster and under 11 minutes. So after getting a slightly longer breather as the women ran the 3K it got a little chilly standing around as the sun began to set and the breeze picked up. Finally we got onto the track and off we went. Similarly to the 1500 it felt weird running at the beginning like I should be going much faster and that the cardio and breathing component was way too easy, but I expected to feel the lactic acid and tiredness in my legs from the previous race as this one carried on. I more or less ended up in no-man's land in the race as there were a five or six guys who were super fast and shooting for times in the 8:30-9:15 range and then a pair of people in the 10 minute range, followed by me, and another eight to ten runners at 11 minutes or slower. Running mostly alone and catching one person who had gone out way too fast with about two laps left I finished in 10:36, a respectable time after having run the 1500 and given that I wasn't really in a race mentality and wasn't pushing it that much but more or less just trying to maintain the pace and effort that I had started out at---with a 5:40 mile pace I was at least a good ten seconds under my most recent 5K pace, which was all I was trying to accomplish. It was also very windy by this point along the far turn as the weather had really picked up later in the evening. With about 800 meters to go, as I had expected, I could really start to feel the burn/fatigue in my hamstrings presumably from the earlier race but again the cardio and breathing part seemed way easier than I expected.

So my night at the track finished and I went for a nice four mile run home, accompanied for about half the way by a fellow local road racer who I had talked to and finished around at a number of other races over the years. We had a nice conversation and got to know each other a bit better than from our brief encouters at the start and finish of previous races so it was a nice way to end the evening. I finished the night with two (expected) new PRs, a good workout, the belief that I can challenge the sub 5 minute mile mark in the Fifth Avenue Mile in September if I so choose, and hopefully something left in my legs for the 5 mile race this Sunday.