Fifth Avenue Mile

I love running the Fifth Avenue Mile. It is set up in a series of heats, designated by age and gender, so you're running with a fairly small group and it's easy to see the different abilities (unlike most NYRR races, where the faster runners are placed up front). This provides a fun challenge - because we're all together and because the distance is so short (so there isn't as much of a need to set a slower pace), everyone starts relatively fast. I've heard from other runners how deceiving that can be - as with any run, if you start too fast you can really feel the energy depletion later on - but experienced it for the first time on Saturday. I made amazing time in the first 1/4 mile, but then felt awful and had to pull back so much that I ran considerably slower than my overall pace 2 years ago. Something to work on, I guess...