Race Report: Winking Lizard "A Shot in the Dark" 4 miler

Even more post race festivities @ Winking Lizard - Cleveland, OH
Originally uploaded by thespacerace.

Last night I ran in the 3rd annual Winking Lizard "A Shot in the Dark" 4 mile race through downtown Cleveland, OH. Despite being only three years old, it has become a very popular race, likely due to being a short run downtown (and of course the affiliation with a bar, and post-race party in the street, including a "beer garden"). I heard many good things about it, so I decided to try it out this year.

The weather conditions were less than ideal. It was very humid and temperatures were in the upper 80s (despite the 7pm start time), and the setting sun was right in my eyes at times. The course was a pretty good one, starting off downtown in the Gateway District, over the Lorain Avenue bridge into Ohio City, and then back over the Detroit bridge and back towards the arena. The event was chip timed, which was nice.

The starting line was a mess, as they ended up changing it from where everyone was originally lined up, so people near the back ended up near the front. So I spent most of my first mile getting around slower runners, which wore me down. I think my first mile was a 7:14 or so. Mile 2 went a little more smoothly, especially since it was mostly flat. I reached the halfway point at 14:14. Mile 3 was the hardest of the run as it involved going over a second bridge which was more inclined than the first. I can't remember my split for that one, but it was not good. Try as I might, I was not able to really kick on the afterburners to the finish until the last 100 feet or so. I crossed the line in 28:38. I really feel like I could have met my goal of sub-28 were it not for the weather conditions.

Here are the numbers:

Time: 28:38
Pace: 7:10/mi
Overall: 107 of 1130
Division (Male 25-29): 20 of 112

While I had hoped to do a little better, this is my best showing statistically since I started running a little over a year ago. Top 10% overall, and top 20% for my division. Things are looking up. No more races scheduled for a while. I'm sure I'll run some more races this summer, but the next one I'm signed up for is the River Run 1/2 marathon in September.


Weekly Total: 17 miles
Yearly Total: 438.6 miles