The Millen Mile

I was sad that the timing didn't work out for me to do an outdoor track race this year.  Then I chanced on an article about the Millen mile and realized it timed out for me!  The mile is held on the Kennett High School track in North Conway NH at half-time of the season opening home game.  Talk about cool!  I contacted Bernie Livingston and was happy when he said "you're in!".  I haven't done much in the way of faster running in a while and was hoping this would wake up my legs for the upcoming 5km road championships.

I drove the 125 miles from work at 3pm on a Friday of a holiday weekend.  Wow, some crazy traffic!  Luckily I had plenty of time.  I walked around the parking lot and track to get a bit loose after the 3.5 hour drive.

Soon enough it was time to warm-up.  I got in a really nice 3 mile run on the N Conway recreation trail.  After that I quickly changed into race gear and flats and headed to the track.  We had a bit of time as the first half wound down.  I got in some strides and chatted with some of the competition (including CMS teammate Leslie O'Dell - I was so happy to see a familiar face!).  We each got called to the line then were sent on our way.

I was hoping to run 80's and maybe pick it up and sneak in under 5:20.  It was a bit weird running on the track at night under the lights but also cool getting the crowd support on the home-stretch.  I hit the first lap (actually 409 meters to get us the full mile instead of 1600 meters) in 82.  After that I tried to pick it up.  I was alone in 6th with one high school runner up ahead.  I wasn't with him but he was close enough to keep me "in it".  I could also hear from the announcer that Leslie was not far behind.  I passed the half-mile in 2:43 (81 second split) so better but still not quite what I'd hoped for.  Now I started counting down 800 to go, 700 to go, etc., and reached the end of the third lap in 4:03 (80 second split).  I was glad that I wasn't going to get lapped!  I kicked with all I had and managed a 78.9 final lap for a time of 5:21.9.  That was good enough for 6th place in the field of 11 finishers.  More importantly, it was a heck of a lot of fun!

I met up with Leslie and a few of the guys and we did multiple loops around the school to get in a 2 mile warm-down.  Man, it was getting late and I was tired :-)

I'm looking forward to coming back to this race and getting a "Livingston Oval" PR on Strava!