I know you all have been worried the last few days, wondering how I would fare in this extremely important one-mile race that occurred yesterday.

Rest assured, my friends, all is well!

The race went really well and it was a ton of fun! My co-workers and I got together about a half-hour early before our heat began (we raced in the media heat) to do some dynamic stretching and just chat about stuff that didn’t revolve around work. Then we ventured down to the corrals, where we realized there were awards for best team outfits, etc! We had no idea! Unfortunately, we came unprepared for these fun categories, but we’re already prepping for next year. At least we had “Team Fitness” rockin’ on our sleeves. We looked pretty nifty, if I do say so myself.

I called out for advice on this race and basically a lot of people just told me to relax, have fun and run fast. Noted.

I also tried my best to follow this outline from Jess, which proved to be really helpful.

Going into the race, my plan was to run the:

•  First 400 meters at 85% effort
• Second 400 meters at 75% effort to catch my breath
• Third 400 meters at 100% effort….just run.
• Final 400 meters at 110% effort…aka run like the wind, bullseye!

However, I didn’t follow the plan exactly. Oops.

Our heat was small because it was only the media organizations racing, and somehow I found myself at the very front toeing the starting line. I have never been able to actually toe the starting line before a race, making me one of the first people to pounce when the horn sounds. Standing on that line caused a lot of excitement and pressure. I wanted to run hard and I wanted to run fast. Soon, the horn blasted and I flew!

Before I knew it, we hit the quarter-mile mark and when I looked at my Garmin, I was pacing a 4:00-minute mile –woooooahhhhh Sam, simmer down. You cannot run that fast for very long. At all. So I reigned it in quite a bit until I was running at about a 7:00-minute mile. Phew.

Once I hit the half-way point, all bets were off. I kicked it up into high gear, tagging one of my teammates (who’s faster than me and actually does speed workouts) so I would forget about time and just run. The final quarter-mile arrived and I gave it everything I had. I angled my head down a little more, pumped my arms as much as I could, and sprinted. I planted my foot on the finish line at 7:19.

This race was a completely different experience for me, but it was so fun. My body kept trying to tell me to calm down so that I could run for a long time, but then my mind was screaming, “You’re almost done! Motivate yo booty!” So I think I landed somewhere in between, but closer to the motivate yo booty realm. After all, I haven’t ever run a mile that fast before. I think if I had followed the race plan closer, I would’ve run faster, but I’m not complaining

Running the race with all of my co-workers made it even more fun. We’re all passionate about fitness and well, we’re all just a lot of fun, so it was great hanging out with them for a little while outside of work. Yay for Team FITNESS!

I was supposed to high-tail it out of there right away to head upstate to my parent’s house, but Dustin ended up being called into work and knew he wouldn’t get out until at least 12:30. My race was over by 9:00a.m., so that meant more time for running! I decided to finish my long run, especially because I needed to log some miles after being sick for two days.

The first 4.5 miles went great. I maintained a steady 9:10 pace in Central Park and although my legs felt tight, they felt strong. Then I ventured out to see what was going on with the race, and it all went downhill from there. I was jogging on the cobblestone because the racers were on the pavement (not fun) and out of nowhere, a little dog pounced and latched onto my right thigh! I was shocked and screamed, but luckily the dog didn’t pierce my skin. There’s a lovely hole in my favorite capri pants though now. I was extremely irritated though because the dog’s owner, who watched it all happen, didn’t even ask me if I was alright! She saw me, yanked on the dog’s leash, and high-tailed it out of there. I find that to be incredibly rude and inconsiderate. Am I overreacting?

I ended up running back toward the Met, which makes me happy. I can’t help but think of Gossip Girl every time I see it. Does that show off my generation, or what?

Anyway, after the dog bite, my stomach went into crap-mode. Literally. (Sorry if I’m sharing too much) For the last 3.5 miles, I ended up stopping at three porta-potties, and running with an insanely painful side stitch. My pace slowed way down, but I was determined to finish. My splits weren’t fantastic, but at that point I didn’t care. I just wanted to be done.

I think my problems were with fueling, so I’ll be making some adjustments on the next long run to see how I fare. I’ve never had a bad long run before, so I’m glad that I now know I can power through it. I was also happy to know that I could immediately slurp down this delicious smoothie in a bowl.

Raspberries, cocoa powder, peanut butter and almond milk. Yum.

Did you run the Fifth Avenue Mile? How was it? And how do you deal with bad long runs?