On July 04, 2019 I raced Keene’s annual 4 on the 4th Road Race. It was my eighth time running this race.
Since I run it every year, this race can gauge my speed difference from year to year. However, despite feeling like a better runner pretty much every year, I had not PRed this race since I ran a 23:39 way back in 2016.
This year I was feeling more confident. I’d lost some weight and my recent 10K results were proving that I was for sure faster this year.
As the race starts, the lead pack separates off from a second group including me, Gunnar, Jake Atherton, and a few high school runners. I run with the second group for the first mile of the race which we did in about 5:45. Around mile 1.25, Torin starts to speed away, and a few others drop off the back. I pretty much keep my pace as the pack separates out. Nobody else aside from Torin in the second group passes or keeps up with me.
Then for 2.5 miles I just ran a fast but uneventful second half of the race, finishing almost a minute faster than my 2016 time in 22:42, winning my age group and a glorious $20 gift card for Applebees!
