Great turnout for the Brew Hop 5K in NYC! This low-key race was much more about the post-race beer festival than the race itself (they didn’t even have chip timing!). Lots of friends showed up to race (and a few just to drink) for the 11th of the 30-race campaign.
With a noon start time, the weather (around 70 degrees) was much better for drinking than running. With lingering injuries and travel-related weight gain, my goals were pretty straightforward:
Race Goals:
1) Don’t aggravate hamstring injury. (✓)
2) Don’t injury anything else. (✓)
3) Run a fairly consistent pace around 7min/mile. (✓)
4) Don’t lose to Alex Kapelman. (✓)
I made a few conscious changes for this race.
First, I opted to start near the front so as not to have to waste energy weaving around runners in the first half-mile. I also decided to race with music on but to turn my pace notifications off (usually I have my running app update me every half-mile with my average pace). I would have to race much more on feel and see if my pacing would be any better this time around.
I still went out a bit too fast during the first half-mile, but managed to slow my pace a little to average right about 7min for the first mile. My second mile was a few seconds slower and my abs were beginning to hurt, but my last 1.1 miles were fairly quick and I had a strong finishing kick for a new #30at30 best time of 21:36 (6:57/mile average)!
It’s unclear where I finished, though by my calculations, I was probably in the top 15-20. It was a slow field. Luckily, my hamstring held up pretty well and didn’t hurt much until a few hours after the race.
Alex Kapelman didn’t run, so that was an easy check mark.
The course was a good one and the race very fun… but the beer festival was the best part. It was great to have so many friends show up and relax after a tough workout. The afternoon weather was near-perfect. I would definitely recommend this event.
We’ll definitely look for another NYC event in the spring, so keep your eye on the schedule page in the coming weeks for updates.