I heard about this race several weeks ago through the Brooklyn running grapevine. Greg Hamilton, an employee at a JackRabbit Sports Store - a mini-chain with a location in Park Slope and two in Manhattan - had testicular cancer that had spread and needed money for his treatment. The store was sponsoring a 5K in Prospect Park for Greg, with all funds going to his care.
Blessedly the humidity had died down after what was a muggy, miserable weekend and Tuesday night was a gorgeous one in Brooklyn. As I find that so many events held in Prospect Park are, this one appeared rather disorganized at first. Bag check, for example, was a tarp tied around some garbage cans; the race organizers had to wait for car hours (don't EVEN get me started) to end so that runners could hit the road, pushing the race's start time back at least a half hour; there didn't appear to be an actual starting line.
But once the race actually did get going, Kelly and I quickly discovered that the course was not just our standard loop around the park. This course was set up more like a cross-country race, taking advantage of paths that cut through the heart of the park and the fantastic scenery. There were a few moments when I didn't recognize where I was. (There were several moments spent ducking branches on the sides of paths to make up for it, though.) Aside from one perilous moment when Kelly and I were trapped in a mass of people including a really annoying "actress" who was upset that people might not recognize her in a Progresso commercial because she had had different hair, and the guy who claimed to be unaware that there were hills in Prospect Park (begging the question - have you BEEN to Prospect Park before?) we pretty much killed this race.
Our final time was around 29 minutes. I have never run a 5K in under 30 minutes before. This won't count for my official race time with NYRR, since it wasn't an NYRR race, but I now know I'm capable of maintaining speed in a short race and I plan to improve upon this discovery. I hadn't even planned to race; I've been so out of commission this summer for health reasons.
Best of all, Greg will get about $20,000 towards kicking cancer's ass. This race makes me happy for many reasons but for all the personal success I truly hope this brings some good mojo his way. And I hope he comes and kicks the course's ass himself next year.
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