Saturday morning I awoke bright and early to do my five miler on the National Mall. I wanted to do a relaxed run and run negative splits. Not sure that those two things go together, but hey it was early and I was a bit delirious. I started out and just instantly knew it was gonna be a good run. I knew I was running pretty slow, which was my goal. I figured that in order to run the second half of my run faster than the first half (what negative splits means), I should average about a 10:30-11min mile for the first 2.5 miles. Then I could kick it in for the back half of my run.
This strategy almost totally worked as you can see below. I got faster each mile except for mile 4, where I was .06 seconds slower than mile 3. Kinda a bummer, but overall I’m really happy with the run.
| MILE | TIME | CHANGE | AVG PACE |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
10:54 | — | 10’54″/mi |
|
2
|
21:08 | – 0:40 (6%) | 10’14″/mi |
|
3
|
31:22 | – 0:00 (0%) | 10’13″/mi |
|
4
|
41:41 | + 0:05 (-1%) | 10’19″/mi |
|
5
*Fastest
|
51:24 | – 0:36 (5%) | 9’42″/mi |
I had some fun help in picking my pace up along the mall. I noticed a group of middle aged black men running alongside of me. I noticed them because they reminded me of my dad. They passed me on the middle of the mall but I kept them in my sights. When they paused at 14th street to wait for the light to change, I caught up to them. The coast was clear and so I pushed ahead. I decided I was going to have them pace me to my turnaround point (which was the WW II Memorial). So they caught me and I pushed ahead, determined to not let them pass me. And I didn’t. Once we got to the turnaround I thanked them and went on my way. It was awesome!
As much as I don’t love waking up early on a Saturday, I loved the fact that the mall belonged to walkers and runners and that was it. No huge groups of tourists to weave around, very few cars to account for, it was just peaceful and fun. I’m definitely going to make this a habit 🙂
Scenes from a great run!
Did you run this past weekend? Where do you like to run early in the morning?
Yay for negative splits. I am trying so hard to learn how to do those!
Emma @ a mom run this town
It is SO hard! That run was one of the first times I’ve been able to do so.
I had (basically) negative splits for my 4 miler this weekend too! It’s so hard and I felt like I was moving really slowly at the beginning, but I liked being able to pick up the pace toward the end. Great job!
You too – it’s a pretty awesome feeling to see the times go down. I’m normally always the opposite, so it was nice to see 🙂 Good work!
yes, i love the mall on summer weekend mornings! blissfully quiet!
Great run! Ahh I miss running in D.C.
It’s a pretty place for running inspiration!
Wow, I’m so jealous that you get to run in such beautiful scenery. It must be so incredibly inspiring. And way to go on using those men as your pacers! Looks like a great run and you killed your last mile!
Thanks – it was so fun using the men as pacers. I think they got a kick out of it as well! 🙂 I have no idea how I pulled that last mile out – I must’ve just wanted to finish 🙂
Nice run! Way to rock those negative splits! My longish run this weekend was less than stellar! I know I need to get to DC to run those awesome paths!
Yes, you absolutely do!! It’d be awesome to run together!!