Poland Spring 5 Miler: 32:02 / 6:24 and Then Some...

Final Time: 32:02 (PR)
Pace: 6:24
Rank: 146/5973
Age Grade: 66.5%
Splits: 6:41 / 6:21 / 6:25 / 6:14 / 6:17

Congrats to the newlyweds, John and Christine! The Sigeps just had a great time at the wedding banquet and of course my bro Ace, delivered an awesome best man speech with a closing line in cantonese! For chinese weddings, it was all about the food. Since I haven't had chinese food in awhile; it was good to have authentic chinatown soul-food. After attending John's wedding in Chinatown, we headed back to our apartments for a quick costume change and partied at Opus (22nd/11th) around 11pm. Anchi just got me a beard and mustache and quite frankly, it was pretty hard to apply. Anyway to make the long story short, my beard/mustache was pretty effed up as you could see the inserted white adhesive patch. I thought I could pull off as a white trash/hick, but people called me K-Fed instead. Oh well, shyt happens and I'm never good in dressing up for halloween anyways! Most importantly, I made a promise someone not to drink any alcohol that nite....hence not a single drop. Ditto! ;) Although it was tempting when W asked me if I wanted a beer; I courageously refrained!!!

After the nite at Opus, I quickly head back to my apartment to get some rest and get ready for the Poland Spring 5 Miler in 4.5 hours!!! I was pretty reluctant into signing up for this race, but after some coaxing, I decided to run it. Ditto!! Looking back, Poland Spring was actually my very first NYRR race (37:33/7:30) circa 2003. Hence PR'ing on this race was pretty sweet! At the start, madlou asked if i was planning to run or race it. Just like most of my responses, I uttered: "I'm going to run it." But the truth is, if I feel good out there, i'm going to race it. In addition, I normally hate the breezy mornings, but I felt a lot better after some warmups with K. Since training and running w/ K, I felt stronger and I'm glad the results are starting to show. The first mile was a clusterphuck as usual, but since I didn't see K on the first 3 miles, I knew I could PR on this. Well, just when I thought I could destroy him and K told me to smile for Brightroom pics near 85th and 5th and zoomed right passed me. FOCKER!!!!!

Comparing to this summer's WABC 5 miler, I actually felt a lot stronger, didn't struggle in the end and was happy with my splits for the last two miles. For those who know me, I'm never good at any races under 10K, but this time around, I felt stronger after this race. Hence, I'm going to revamp my 2008 running schedule and sprinkle in some 10Ks and 5 milers.

As for the marathon, I do have a goal-time in mind. After achieving a 3:29:02 at this year's Reckson Long Island, if I managed to get a little lower than that, I'll be happy. However, I've been humbled from my first NYC marathon and anything can happen. I'm going to take it easy this week and savoring every moment on 11/4. Most importantly, I would like to be healthy after the marathon since we've already registered for the 60K on 11/17 and quite possibly the Miami Marathon on 1/27/08. Truth be told, despite the disastrous results from the first few months of the year. I'm very happy with a sweet comeback. 7 more days.......I'm totally diggin' it! ;)

John & Christine's Wedding




















Halloween @ Opus










Cheers,
Moz