4mi race PR at 7:21 pace!

Mission accomplished! I broke probably the hardest shod PR I had left. I ran the 4mi race today at 7:21min/mi beating my previous PR of 7:29min/mi. Percentile at 57.3%

Shod PRs Broken by running barefoot: 

1mi (5:52min/mi), 

4mi (7:21min/mi)

PRs yet to be broken:

2.5mi (7:10mi/min)

5mi (8:34min/mi)

10K (8:24mi/min)

Half Marathon (8:35min/mi)

Marathon (9:27min/mi)

I didnt run very hard first three miles and just pushed in the last mile making it a very exhilarating last mile sprint. Plan was to run first two miles at 7:50 so I can be sure that I improve my corral standing. So I ran relatively conservative first three miles at 7:34 (184bpm), 7:27(187bpm), 7:43(188bpm) and then ran all out in the last mile which also happens to be all downhill. The last mile must have been close to 6:50 with average HR reaching 194bpm. 

Overall average HR was 188bpm, significantly lower than 191bpm in the previous PR 4mi race. Those  few bpms make a huge difference since jumping from 188bpm to 194bpm improved my last mile by almost 1mi/min. I did damage the NYC marathon related blister area by too much brushing on rough wet surface but no puncture. Either my form deteriorates at fast speeds or it is inherently hard to run fast without brushing toes and ball of the feet. Something to train for I guess. No other injury or aches of any kind yet. I am glad I decided to do this race. I am clearly not ready for ultras yet till I can finish a marathon strong. But in the meantime, its fun to compete barefoot against myself by breaking shod PRs.

A side note on the race statistics. Looks like out of 6000 racers, more than half (3200) were women. I dont think I have seen women majority before. Interesting! Next big race is three weeks from now. Its a 10K on Dec 7th. My 10K PR is an easy 52:08 (8:24min/mi). I will try to make it sub-8min/mi if I am in okay shape.

BF in NY for 779mi.