rr: greenburgh one mile fun run

katie and me at the start :D

what a great morning to get outside and run a mile! today was the 5th time katie and i have done the greenburgh one mile fun run. except for last year, when we went to niagara-on-the-lake, ontario, we've lined up for this one every year since 2003!

the course is a straightway alongside the metronorth train line. it runs north for one mile and finishes at the south end of the hartsdale train station. andy, the race director, has two heats: men running 7 minute miles or better, go first. then everyone else runs the second heat (including the men who missed the start of the first heat). in years past, i finished my heat and ran back to pace katie during her race. this year she decided to run it with me :(

my friend bob was at the race with his daughter katie. she's in high school and a couple of years older than my katie. bob wasn't running today because of a bad case of plantar fasciitis. instead he positioned himself at the half-way point to give out splits to the runners. i ran a 1:32 first quarter (slow) and, when i reached bob, he called out 3:06 (way too slow), i realized it would be a very poor race for me today. in fact, my 6:26 finish was the slowest mile i've run to date - a major bummer.

by way of comparison, these are my previous times on the greenburgh course:

2003 5:49
2004 5:50
2005 5:37
2006 5:47

each one was good enough to finish as first master, or win my age group! today, despite the slow time by comparison, i still managed to win my age group!

the two katies fared much, much better. bob's daughter katie won the overall women's race and my katie won the youth (18 and under) division! each took home a nice trophy - woo hoo! katie's 8:36 finish was a bit slow, relative to her past performances. but katie finished strong and she enjoyed herself in the process, which is what really matters :D

for me, on the other hand, it's time to head over to the track and start doing intervals ;)


a view of the approach to the finish line, from the overpass

check out the rest of the race photos.