Hartshorne Masters Mile 2026

We are at it again with Tuesday night MITHACAL MILERS workouts. It has been several years since we attended, and this year we agreed it was time to go back since we also went back to cross country. This also helps us add weekly speed for our spring half marathon training.

The last time we did the Hartshorne Masters Mile in 2018, my time trial was 7:26. I ended up running the race with a 6:57 pace that I was very proud of. Read more about it in my Hartshorne Masters Mile post.

This year there were so many people there for the night of the time trial that they assigned us alphabetically by last name. This was both good and bad. Good because I got to run first and was in the same group as Scott. I was also in the same group as Tonya so I had someone I could try to stay up with. It was bad because I ended up being the slowest person in my very large group by 30ish seconds.

I ended up with a 7:51. I wasn’t all that unhappy with the result given my inexperience with the mile and my fear of the mile. I was unhappy with the after. People made comments that were not intended to make me feel bad but did. I heard “wow that took grit” and “Amy’s still out there” and “What happened man?”

When the registration opened for the Hartshorne Masters Mile, they offered red or purple hats if you signed up before a certain date. Truth be told, I don’t much care about getting a hat or doing the race for that matter, but Scott did. It meant something to him for us to both do it, so I said I would sign up and picked purple. Since I was already doing the speed work each week, I might as well be training for a reason.

We had 3 weeks of Tuesday night workouts following the mile time trial. Week 1, I pushed myself and ran with Tonya. Her R pace and I pace were 3 seconds faster than mine, but I managed to stick with her for a challenging progression workout. I felt really proud.

For Week 2 Tonya decided she was going to run faster with Laura and I joined Elizabeth and Laurel who were running my R and I paces. This turned out to be a growth opportunity for me. I forced myself into leading some of the laps - something I’ve never done before this evening, and felt successful.

Week 3 was the week before the race and I joined Laura and Tonya because they were both racing on Saturday. People not racing had a different workout. This was an easier workout - just 200s - but it was really awesome. I felt ready for Saturday.

The week of the race brought a lot of challenges. My dad’s 85th was that weekend and both my sisters were planning to visit. Sarah arrived at 11 pm Wednesday in a snowstorm. Lisa would arrive on Friday or Saturday. We had something every night that week and work was busy. I started not sleeping on Wednesday. We got home a little after midnight after picking Sarah up and I couldn’t settle in. On Thursday, we had a Running Club function and I had a beer. I haven’t been drinking much at all because I can’t sleep if I do. That night I ended up moving to the guest room at 11 so I wouldn’t keep Scott up any later when I couldn’t sleep. And Friday - well I was super anxious about the race the next day. I was still up at 11 and Scott finally asked what was wrong. I shared that I was just so scared and I didn’t want to do it. He said what my friend Gail did, “but it’s just a mile” followed by “then don’t do it.” Then he wandered over to the guest room. Luckily after he left I did fall asleep.

Really that is the question I had to answer. My predicted mile pace of 8 minutes put me as either the fastest person in the first (slowest) heat or the slowest person in the 2nd heat. Alex and I talked about what I should do. Adam and I talked about what I should do. Alex hoped I’d get hooked to a pack and push myself in the faster pace group. She wasn’t so sure that the 7:51 was my best effort in the time trial and thought I could hang with someone in the faster group. Adam thought that it may be a lot for me to be last by up to 30+ seconds in the faster group. Ultimately, I chose the slower group. I remembered the comments after my time trial and I really didn’t know what to expect of myself.

Alex and I decided that given my history of panicking that the goal was to run a nice, confident race where I kept my breathing steady and calm. That would be the measure of success.

I also decided to embrace the opportunity to pace myself with the clock. I couldn’t rely on anyone but me. I could do this. As Gail and Scott said, “it is only a mile.”

We arrived and I did exactly what Alex asked me to do. I warmed up for 2 miles on the track, then I did the race, and then I cooled down 2 miles on the track. I tried to talk to no one until after I ran with just a few exceptions for small talk. For me it is better not to risk sharing how nervous I am - it just makes me more nervous.

I asked the man who was seeded 2nd in our heat (with the exact same listed as me) what his split goals were. He said he had no idea. I was kind of happy to hear that - literally no chance to latch onto anyone. I would have to run my own race.

My time was 7:46.42.

I had my splits on my hand and determined 57 was my goal split for 200s. I went out too fast after failing to start my watch and hit 53 on lap one. Unfortunately, I read it as 43 and slowed down a lot. But really, it wasn’t a lot because my 2nd split was also too fast at 54.87. The next 5 200s were all too slow by quite a bit. They clocked in at 1:00.79, 1:00.15, 1:00.86, 1:01.12, 1:00.23 and finally my last lap was a 55.37.

I accomplished my goal of solid breathing and confident running. I took my friend Laura’s running song, Mambo No 5 and just kept humming it in my head. It kept a little zip in my step and stopped me from falling into any negative thinking.

I jumped right into the cooldown 2 miles, spectating as I ran. Then, I joined my friend Kim and her husband to watch the rest of the races with a prime spot looking at the scoreboard. It was great fun to watch all the very fast runners, including Scott. I don’t know how they do it, but it is inspiring!

1 mi in 7:46.42 // 27 of 35 overall