Sunday May 23rd was a very cloudy but comfortable day with low humidity and temperatures in the low 70's. During the entire day it appeared as it was going to rain at a moment's notice. I did not want to subject my wife and kids to a downpour for the race so I decided to go the race alone. As my sons get older we will brave the elements.
This race was on the Millersville University campus in Lancaster. I have never set foot on this campus. It's a beautiful campus with some really interesting architecture. I believe school was out for the summer so there were few students to be seen.
The majority of the race is run on North George Street, which is ironic because a street of the same name is a major thoroughfare in the city of York. I drove the race route to get to the race headquarters at McComsey Hall. I was very enthused about running the course as the first quarter mile was uphill, but the remaining three quarters of a mile were downhill.
About fifteen minutes before our heat was to begin at 6:30pm, it begin to rain very hard. I was not looking forward to running in the rain, but it would have been an experience. Fortunately a race official knew the rain would be out of the area quickly.
The race went off at 6:30pm as scheduled. I was running with boys aged 8-14 and men aged 40 and above. As the starting gun went off, a young man immediately to my left, slipped and fell on the road due to oils which had accumulated on the surface of the road.. I made a mental note to be conservative when making changes in direction during the race. I did not have any issues with footing during the race.
I had memorized where I wanted to be at each quarter mile split, 1:30, 3:00, and 4:30. A nice feature of this race was someone was present at each quarter mile to call out your split times. At each split I was six or seven seconds ahead of where I wanted to be.
In spite of achieving the splits I had planned upon, a quick scan revealed I was further back in the pack than the top ten. I was somewhat dejected throughout the race because of my relative position, although this was more than offset by the excitement of getting closer and closer to breaking my six minute per mile goal for this race.
Unofficially, I finished the race in five minutes and fifty-six (5:56) seconds. The official results will be posted at http://millersvillemile.homestead.com/
My training appears to be effective. My prior personal one mile record was 6:26 at the Stiegel Mile in Manheim last October. I was able to shave thirty seconds from my one mile PR. I would like to run the Miller's Mutual Mile in Harrisburg in late July. The mile run in Harrisburg is a slight uphill during the entire run. I will be very lucky to break 5:50, but we'll see what happens then.
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