Valentine's at Ballentine 4 Miler Recap

Happy Valentine's Day!

We don't do much to celebrate Valentine's Day... mainly because of how it has gone in the past for us. It's never pretty.

But I can 100% get behind running a Valentine's Day themed race put on by a local YMCA, especially when it's a four mile race. I've run 4 miles plenty of times throughout the course of training for three half marathons. I'm no stranger to the distance. It's not a typical race distance though so when I saw that there was a 4 mile race nearby, I had to sign up for it.

 

It was also an automatic PR! The first time you race a new distance is always going to be a PR so hey, you've already won before you started.

Mile 1

Pace: 9:02/mile

This was a fairly easy 2 mile out & back course that you ran twice to get to the total 4 miles. It was on an old road that I used to drive on a tiny bit faster on when I was running late for being home in high school. I'm glad it was a closed course! Because I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who ignores the speed limit on this road from time to time.

The race felt like a decent sized group run - not exactly like a race. But somehow I still managed to go out at a 9:02 pace for the first mile {?!}

Mile 2

Pace: 9:25/mile

We turned around and headed right back towards the start line for the 2nd mile. The only discouraging thing along this mile? Seeing the lead runner around 2.5 miles in on his way back to the turn around point when you've only run 1.5 miles.

Mile 3

Pace: 9:27/mile

I'm usually not a fan of running back by my starting point in any run because of the temptation to cut my run short. Not really an option in this race. At least the race planners had organized this turn around point really well because half the runners were turning around to run their 2nd loop and half the runners were switching out with their relay teammate.

Mile 4

Pace: 9:16/mile

I haven't run more than 3.1 miles since early December so I was a little worried about this last mile. Surprisingly, it was my 2nd fastest mile of the day and I still had a little bit left in me at the end of the race to sprint the last tenth of a mile uphill to the finish line. I figured that I would be somewhere in the 38-40 minute finish but ended up with 37:19 {yay!}

 

Any race that hands out Chickfila biscuits at the finish line is my kind of race.

Final Results

Chip Time - 37:15

Watch Time - 37:19

Pace - 9:19/mile

Age Group - 1st Place!

Gender - 13/32

Overall - 31/64



Yay! The elusive first place in my age group! It was already a small race since it was an inaugural race but it was made even smaller because you could either run the 4 miles solo or you could make a relay out of it. A lot of people opted for the relay so it made the individual field super small.

Like, really small.

So small that I was the only girl between the age of 25-29 running all four miles solo. Not only was this race an automatic PR but an automatic first place finish. My kind of race y'all, my kind of race.

My only complaint though is that they only handed out awards to top three overall male/female in the individual race and the rest of the awards went to the relay people. It's not often that I can snag first place in my age group {the last time was 1.5 years ago} so I was kind of bummed out about that.

Next race: TBD! There are two that I'm eyeing this coming weekend... it's not that I can't decide between them, it's that I can't decide if I want to do just one or both. It's totally doable. They're 1.5 hours apart and each course is only a short drive away from one another.

Do I dare? We'll see!