5280 feet: the mass ave m1le (7/22/12)

Tim, me and Urvi after the Mile.

Race: Mass Ave Mile

Location: Cambridge, MA

Goal Time: 5:30

Actual Time: 5:33 (Adult PR!)

I passed the quarter mile clock at 72 seconds!  My internal Keith Jackson voice hit: “Whoa Nelly.” If I continued running at this pace I would break my all-time record for the mile.  The one I did when I was 17 and used to run the mile every week.  Well, looks like I’m in trouble. Not much I can do about now – GO For it.

*****

The Mass Ave Mile is a new event in Cambridge.  Starting in Porter Square and finishing in front of Harvard, it just runs straight down Massachusetts Avenue.  They set up clocks every ¼ mile for updates.  Tim said he forgot to run the tangents; I noticed few tangents to run except for into Harvard Square.

*****

I passed the half mile clock at 2:30!  After such a fast quarter mile I figured my race was over anyways.  Might as well try to keep up the INSANE pace I had started.  What did Joe say? You might think your banking time, “but, the bank charges interest.”  It was now time for me to pay up.

*****

I had feared that the start of the race would be a big cluster fuck. It was the first year (always a bad thing) AND not being headed up by a runner or normal race director.  I was wrong.  They had managed to place an obvious divide between under 5:20 and over 5:20.  Tim, John and I stood right on the divide.  This was good for both John and Tim as they were able to run with the groups of runners who were their respective speeds.  It was bad for me because I got sucked up into the people running John and Tim’s respective speeds.  (See: The aforementioned Keith Jackson impression.)

*****

At three quarters of a mile I was at four flat.  This was odd since for the most part I was passing people.  However, I had “lost” 12 seconds on that quarter alone.  But that was okay, with another 90 second quarter I would still run a 5:30!

*****

After the finish line we were escorted down Kennedy to Winthrop Square where there was a good light breakfast spread with bagels and coffee and what not ; and a little mini-runners expo.  The awards were then held on the grass outside Grendel’s. 

*****

The finish line was in sight as we made the gentle right into the Square (a tangent Tim apparently did not run).  5:22!  “C’mon!” I yelled to the guy next to me: “5:30!”  Alas, it was not to be.  I came across at 5:33 – still an adult PR but at least 5 if not 10 seconds slower than I could have run without a CRAZY first quarter.

Tim finished at a blazing 4:55!  Urvi came in 6 seconds faster than her mile from earlier this year.