The Bronx 10M is growing on me

Last Sunday was my third consecutive participation in the NYRR Bronx 10-Mile run and I think this time I enjoyed it the most. After a long stretch of injury-related breaks and slowly-but-surely, but still far from where it is supposed to be, regaining of my fitness to the levels seen a year ago, I finally managed to run a 10 miler wisely. I did not start off too fast. I did not push myself too much in the first three quarters. I even aimed for an average pace of 7:30 minutes per mile and was never disappointed that I actually dipped down to that at times. In short, I raced with the knowledge that I have to obey my body. Temporary pain is okay,
just don't turn it into permanent pain.

I wrote about this twice already, so I won't repeat too much about how not so flat the course is and that the ups and downs in the first three miles really suck when we have to run them again in the last three miles. The underpass under Fordham Road broke me last year, this year it was just a little dip in my pace.

For the first time I also noticed, and enjoyed tremendously, the serenity of that short stint down and back Mosholu Parkway. It's a around the half-way point of the race (miles 5 1/2 - 6 1/2) where things just quiet down and I was able to refocus myself for the last half. It was a bit of a bummer that it was all over just 7-some minutes later and we went back south on the Grand Concourse. Just before we turned left on the incline I gave myself a little speech of encouragement to get me through the last three and a half miles. I guess it worked.

Picture by Marathon Foto

Since I switched from Endomondo to a Garmin Forerunner I now have maps that I can embed as well. On my Garmin Connect page you can find everything you need to know about this race.

In the end I crossed the finish line in 1:12:33, an average pace of 7:15, which places me in 845th out of 9349 positions in total and 72nd out of 516 for my age group (which, by the way, was upgraded to 45-49 this February). Considering that I ran a 46:46 in a 10k just three weeks ago, which is a 7:32 mile, I think I am improving at a nice clip.

A couple of random notes about this race: a few people ran the the Bronx 5k first and then ran the 10 miles. One of my club mates actually placed third total in the 5k and then ran a 6:45 average in the long race. That is quite a feat and dedication. On a different note, Peter Ciaccia, president of events, was greeting all runners right behind the finish line and gave out high-fives. I thought that was pretty cool.

This was my first posting after so many months and I owe a bit of race recaps and some volunteer experience. I hope I'll get to that in the next few days, before my next run, the Staten Island Half.

Stay tuned and keep on running!