9.344 Meters

I love the mile, but I don’t really trust the 1600.

Let’s do a bit of math. If you run 1600 meters in 4 minutes 38 seconds you are running at a speed of 5.755 meters per second. It also means it takes .174 seconds to run 1 meter. The mile is 1609.344 meters long. If you run a 1600 meter race in 4:38 you would add 1.62 seconds to your time to get your mile equivalent for a time of 4:39.62 seconds.

Ready set go.
Ready set go.

That is exactly what I did a few weeks ago at the final Mid-Hudson Road Runner’s Club Twilight Track Series meet. One of my goals is to see how many years in a row I can break 4:40 for the mile. So now the question becomes have I accomplished my goal for the year?

6
Head down chin up.

For once I ran a pretty steady race. According to the split clock I ran 69.x 70.x 70.x 68.x which is as close to dead even as I’m ever going to get. It helped that I was being relentlessly pursued by Mike Chow all 4 laps.

4
Mike’s still there

There was also a fit looking HS junior on my tail and I just kept waiting for him to blast by me the last 600 meters, but it was Mike who really kept the pressure on.

3
Stretching the pack

I just couldn’t get rid of the sound of Mike’s footsteps, even on the last lap where I was sure I could pull away with a quick burst of speed. He held on the whole time finishing about a second behind me closely followed by the high schooler. Results here.

The quandary now is, do I have to find an actual mile to race or can I count the conversion? The race wasn’t FAT timed, but my 4:38 was rounded up. That makes me feel pretty good about counting it as a sub 4:40 mile. But what if I tripped in that last 9 meters? What if I made a wrong turn? What if I suddenly got really tired and sat down with .1 meters to go? 1600 meters is not 1 mile… I’ll have to start hunting for a late summer early fall mile, or wait for the winters series to begin.

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Lisa back on track
Lisa back on track

In other happy news. Lisa is getting back into racing shape. After a several month setback this spring she is increasing her mileage and even hitting the track for some workouts. With no workouts and only a few miles a week running May-July she managed a nice 6:20 1600 at the last Twilight Meet. While it wasn’t a great performance in her estimation she showed a lot of guts and Run Tuff spirit during the last 2 laps. I think she will be ready for a new 5k PR this fall.

Nice form!
Nice form!

Hazel and Roo also raced that same night. Hazel even won her first ribbon that wasn’t just a participant ribbon by throwing down a nasty 200 meter to kick off her 200/50/400 triple.

All business
All business

Roo was all business during the 200 and 40 meter dashes, wearing her 3x too big Wally Waddle shirt new running shoes and bib. We expect big things next summer from this one.

Stay tuned for the Bergen 5k race recap which I’m sure someone in Rochester is frantically cobbling together.