Next race on the horizon

Brooklyn Bridge
Source: Wikipedia

I just signed up for a race across the Brooklyn Bridge. It is organized by the NYPD and will involve running across the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back. My right knee is a bit sore right now (thanks to a couple of really nice long runs and one fast run over the last three days) so I will take the
next two days off from running. On Thursday I will do one more fast run and on Friday another long run, Saturday will be, maybe, a slow jog around the island, and then is race day. I will try to get down to 7 minutes per mile. Not sure how realistic that is but you never know.

I have been looking to join a running club here in New York for a while now. At first I looked at the Dashing Whippets but I personally think the average age of their members is at least a decade too young (for my taste, i.e. w/o having a couple of drinks in me). Then I found the New York Flyers and I still have to join up with them successfully for a group run. They are also organizing a 5k on Roosevelt Island in a couple weeks and I am planning to run that one as well. In the meanwhile I have been increasing my mileage quite a bit. On Saturday I ran from Roosevelt Island, across the Queensboro Bridge, down to 37th Street on 1st Ave, and then all the way down to the Staten Island Ferry terminal along the East River, all in all it was a bit more than 8 1/2 miles. It seems my current average training pace is in the the vicinity of 8 minutes. I read a lot about how training runs should be taken easy and should be 3 or 4 minutes slower than your race pace but I just cannot slow myself down. Running fast just comes naturally. Until my knees give up....