Japan Day!

OK, real quick here, since I have to go strike a show.

Today was the first ever Japan Day - another nice 4-miler in Central Park. I tried to get there early to do 4 miles warmup, but only had enough time for two miles. And what slow miles they were. First mile was 13 minutes, though granted, it was uphill the whole way. I'd chosen to go backward along the route and turn around at the 3rd mile marker, so I knew what I was getting myself into. The second mile was much better, a 10:20 with only a smidgen of walking - cause it was downhill the whole way.

The race itself was pretty good. I'm on a roll with runs that don't suck. I wasn't fast, but I turned in my fourth-best time for this distance, a 42:27. Some walking, not much. I was pleased with my performance given the diffucult hot and humid weather. Everyone was sweating like mad, and nobody seemed too prepared for the heat. In fact, one runner collapsed about 1/4 mile short of the third water station. This section is a difficult mile anyway - all the elevation gain from 102nd street to about 80th. It was a hard mile for me, too, with it being over an 11 minute mile - but I made up for it in that last, easy fourth mile. I even had enough energy for a mild finishing kick, keeping one very loud fellow from beating me.

Didn't go visit the Japan Day festivities set up in Rumsey field. Somebody decided to block off the usual rear entrances and by the time I was around the field and passing the front entrance, I decided I'd had enough of Central Park for the day. Blocking off the rear entrance was a bad decision on the organizers' part.