When I first penciled this race in my calendar, yes there really was a pencil and actual paper involved, my plan was to really race this. After I added my Brooklyn Half Training to the schedule the idea became race the four miles and then add on the additional six miles for my weekend long run. Mother Nature had some other ideas for this weekend that caused for a change in plans.

Both Janice Huff and Lee Goldberg said it was going to rain and rain steadily throughout the day. While I don’t mind rain runs in the summer, it’s still a little too cool for my tastes so the running plans completely changed for the weekend. Instead of doing the 4+6 miles I ran 10 miles on Saturday and then ran this race as an easy four today. Yesterday’s 10 miles were wonderful in amazing weather and I similar to last week’s eight mile long run I felt really strong at the finish.

Today’s four miles were eh to say the least. My legs felt incredibly heavy for the first mile which made running up Cat Hill interesting. I swallowed some tree pollen during the first mile and coughed my way through the first mile and a half. For some reason I slowed down during mile two of the nice straight away by the reservoir on the east side of the park. I felt my IT band tighten on my left leg which had never happened before on mile three but was a few seconds faster then the second mile and then I finally got into the run and felt good during the final mile and for the first time had a negative split for the final mile.

I never stressed out over the leg issues as I had a feeling that would happen. The day after a long run is always a rest day for me so this was the first time I was doing this. I knew it would take longer to warm up and I knew I would have to do some serious stretching and foam rolling when I got home.

I got to see a bunch of my friends I hadn’t seen in a while and a couple of my co-workers so what could have been a frustrating race if I had indeed gone in with the intentions of racing was an enjoyable one.

Next weekend I have two races, the Bronx Zoo Run for the Wild 5k and the Run as One four mile in Central Park plus an additional eight miles for my 12 mile long run. Hopefully the weather will cooperate next weekend as I won’t be able to be as flexible with the long run.