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The Harrisburg Mile
Finished 7th in men's 45-49 age group.
I had a good warm up. There is a lot of waiting time since all the the other age group heats go before the 45-49's. I jogged an easy 2 miles 16+ min just before the race I did 5x60m striders. Definetly came to the line warm and sweating. Later the cool down was an easy 1.75 mile jog (17+ min).
Pre Race
I had a good amount of anxiety before this race. I haven't raced in a mile for 20 years. I entered this because I was very curious about what I could do at this distance as I am about to become 50 years old. An hour before my heat I met Kary Zimmerman from Ephrata area. He was racing in the 50-54 age group. I later found out he had won that age group last year with a 5:13. Talking to him was actually quite helpful to me. He really thought I would have no problem going under 6:00 and felt I could even have a chance to go under 5:30. I knew that my 90sec 400m averages in my recent interval workouts indicated going under 6:00 should be no problem. Using my recent 20:09 5k from Gettysburg various software apps projected my mile race time as 5:54. However, based on my recent 400m interval workouts I thought sub 5:50 should be possible but I was still worried about going too hard too early and missing breaking 6:00. I just haven't had any experience at going this hard for this distance. A mile race is a different creature than a 5k. At Harrisburg they have a clock at the line and they use a count down method to the start each age group heat. Men 45-49 were scheduled for 7:45pm.
The Race
Call it anxiety or nerves but it was all building right up to the moment of that release out on to the course. Once out several other runners went to the lead which was good from my point of view. I tried to treat this like the start of a 5k. Last week at Gettysburg I went through the mile in 6:00, so I had confidence that a similar start with a hard push in the last half would get me under 6:00. I missed hitting my split button at the 1/4 mile and I could not hear what the timer yelled...sounded like 1:18 which would be 78 seconds! The thought flashed through my mind, "that's wrong, I am not moving that fast". At least 5 or 6 were in front of me and as we approached the digital clock at half way I coud see that it was at 2:30 and counting. When I got there and ran past I saw 2:40ish, got the split on m watch and heard the guy yell 2:44 (the split on my watch was 2:44.6). I didn't try to do the math, I just knew this was much faster than 90 second pace (actually it was an 82 second average for two quarter miles!) The third lap started to get tough, this is typical for any race I think. Excitement, anxiety and adrenaline can get you through the first half, many times faster than you should be going, but it's in the third quarter of any race that physical and psychological fatigue mounts and effort, intensity and pace fall off. One needs to stay focused and fight through this. I didn't! My 3/4 mile split was 4:20 on my watch, I believe I heard the timer yell 4:20 as well. This was a 96 second quarter mile. A real big fall off of pace. I really didn't think about this. I had not figured out what that split should be in advance. Not sure if that was good or bad. Again I have no recent experience racing the mile or I would've planned out each split of the race. At some point in this 3rd quarter mile, Steve Koons came by me and almost immediately opened a gap of several yards. There is a slight down grade here and a biker was riding to the left encouraging Steve to take advantage of this. I heard the guy yelling at him to push. Me? ....I was just trying to hang on to my existing pace! I knew from looking at the course and watching the earlier heats that Verbeke St was about 300m out from the finish. The classic mile race tactic in high school was to get on the last lap round the first turn and begin a long kick from 330yds (300m) out. The idea being to beat your competition into the last turn and then explode out of the last turn onto the final 75m straight away to the finish. I had planned to do something similar with Verbeke St as my landmark for this long kick. And I began to do this even though now we were on a very slight upgrade which continued all the way to the finish line. Two things happened in this last 300m. First I began to feel a slight tingling in my arms and burning in my chest, the classic symptoms of anaerobic metabolism, and second I began to close the gap on Steve! With less than 60yds to the finish line, people lining both sides of the street yelling, music blaring on loud speakers, I really thought I was going to catch him. It didn't happen! I got within 2 strides and could not accelerate anymore. And his kick held me off as we crossed the line. Steve Koons 5:44, Phil M 5:45.
Post Race
Now the burning in the chest and numbness... it all just hit me, basic functioning, moving your arms and legs was tough. After crossing the line I stood in front of one of the people who was there to take your chip off your shoe for you. First I couldn't walk to one of them in a straight line and then I put the wrong foot in front of the woman. Then I just bent over hands on knees, letting the burning of oxygen debt flow through me. After she clipped the chip off of my shoe I managed to walk in not so straight lines over to the park. I grabbed a bottle of water but water wasn't what my body needed and after the first drink it seemed pointless and uncomfortable to take up any energy drinking. My body wanted oxygen, Anaerobic metablolism was just now finishing off and Oxygen debt was taking some time to get repaid. I started to feel like it wasn't working, recovery was not going smoothly. Some memories of mile racing twenty years ago flashed through my mind...this is how it felt then too! After about 15 min I felt coherent and functional, I walked down the street and realized Kary Zimmerman was finishing the 50-54 heat. From where I was I saw he went under 5:30 (his time was 5:27). I walked back up the street, found him and congratulated him on a good race but I realized he was now where I was 15min earlier and he was not ready for coherent speech. He looked at me like he didn't know who I was! So I walked off and waited to talk to him later. Oh the Mile what a great race!
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