I couldn't resist, folks. I was planning on my first mile time trial on Friday, but I aborted after assessing the conditions....cold, in the 40s, and winds gusting over 30 miles per hour. Even Roger Bannister voted "No" for his sub-4 mile attempt due to the wind, but Brasher and Chataway voted him down, best of 3, and well, you know how that story turned out.
Anyway, the weekend forecast looked grim, but on Saturday afternoon I notices a lull in the winds, and temperature had climbed to nearly 50 degrees, so I grabbed my racing flats, and headed to the track. After a 1.5 mile warmup, I was thinking of starting, then it started raining rather hard. I hid under the bleachers for a few minutes, then thought, that's enough, I'm doing it, so I went back onto the track for a final warmup, and it stopped raining! I quickly switched into racing flats, lined up a few meters behind the mile start line, told myself (out loud) Set! then I scuttled up to the actual start line, then said "Go!" and took off. My informal target for this first mile of the year was 5:40. Since I had run 5:17 last December, I thought that was a reasonable goal.
First 1/4: 83 seconds. Half mile split: 2:50 (87 seconds). 3/4: 4:17 (another 87, so now 2 seconds behind pace). Final time: 5:40.17, just a tad over my goal, with an 83-second last lap.
As I gasped for breath at the finish line, not able to look at my watch for a while, I said out loud "I hate running!" But within a couple minutes, I was planning goals for my next time trial. So I'm not retiring yet!
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