Race Review: Oakley New York Mini 10k

I absolutely love running the NYRR mini each year.  This is my fourth straight year running this women's only event....and it is SO much fun!  And this year, I set a personal record for the 10k distance by just under 30 seconds.  Ironically, my previous best was in this race last year.
 
I couldn't have been more proud of myself for running a strong race.  My goal was to run between 12 and 12:30 min miles...and I ran at a 12:20 min pace.  My first two miles were really strong, but I struggled a bit with a hilly third mile.  My 5K split was 36:57.

I felt encouraged at the 5k marker as I was tracking my time on my phone and knew I was holding steady, but I slowed a bit on mile 4 and 5 as the heat began to wear on me.  It was tough, but I thought of my inspiration for the race - Coach Mullins and his valiant battle with lung cancer - and picked it back up about halfway through mile 5 and continued through mile 6.  As encouraged by volunteers and others cheering along the way, I just kept running my race at my pace.

As I neared the end of mile 6, I checked my phone and knew it would be close for a PR.  At that point, I recalled Coach Mullins' anthem "Go reckless...Stay loose...Score" and I kicked it into high gear.  It has been a VERY long time since I managed to full out sprint for the finish line at the end of a race, but I was determined to make my goal of setting a PR while honoring Coach Mullins' memory.  Chris said he lost track of me on that final stretch because there were so many people and I sped through so quickly.

I simply could not have been happier to discover my final time - 1:16:32 - especially knowing I was mere seconds from missing out on a PR.  This race was definitely the way I wanted to honor the memory of my GC offensive coordinator...a man of true character that never gave up!

Andrea :)