Back in April, I signed up with the New York Times Company Running Club to enter the Media Challenge - a series of five* races in Central Park, with nine teams from the NYC media world competing for the glory. And because there is free pizza, and no one in the NYC media world will turn down free pizza. (There are also team drinks after the race - another surefire way to ensure turnout - but we pay for those.)
First of all, don't we have nice shirts? The back is even better - see our cute logo, above? But I digress.
Team NYT competes against NewsCorp, McGraw-Hill, HBO/Time Warner, ABC, CBS, NBC, Sony and Conde' Nast. The top five men and top three women finishers on each team score for that team. Their numeric places are added together and the team with the fewest points comes out on top. The course is two lower loops of Central Park, for a rough total of 3.5 miles.
For our first meet on May 19, the weather was perfect. Cool, in the high 60s, no humidity. My goal was to finish in under 30 minutes. Even though I'd run 5Ks that indicated I could achieve that easily, the extra .4 of a mile on this course was throwing me off.
I finished in 29:16. The course was just difficult enough to present a real challenge without being intimidating, and it's tough mentally to get around that loop a second time. But watching people's faces in the park as people rushed by with their team shirts was worth it. I also felt like I had a good handle on my pacing - my second loop was faster than my first.
And Team NYT finished in third place overall! Our organizers were thrilled, saying the team had never finished above fifth before. The two teams ahead of us in the standings, NewsCorp and McGraw-Hill, were both bigger and had overall faster runners. But we were psyched.
Our second meet on June 8 featured warmer, more humid weather. No matter. I was ready for it. I had just started my marathon training and was eager to be racing. I was on fire. My pacing was perfect. I finished in 28:12 - the third NYT woman across the finish line. I scored!
And then a crushing blow - HBO/Time Warner edged us out by A POINT, landing us in fourth place overall. Now, HBO has some very young interns, and those young interns are very, very fast - indeed, one of them set a Media Challenge course record. But one point?! Team NYT resolved to get stronger and faster by July and take down the young'uns.
July 7 rolled around - with a high of 103F and sticky, sticky humidity. The race organizers cancelled our match. I still think this was justified - it was seriously gross outside. The race was reschedule for August 25. We set our sights on July 20....
*Which also got cancelled for the heat, even though it turned out to be neither as hot nor as humid as the earlier date. And they did not reschedule the match, meaning the Media Challenge would be a series of four, not five, races. So disappointing!
So two months after our last rumble in the urban jungle, Team NYT prepared for our next-to-last race on August 4. Then we got The Email. The one from our organizers saying that, due to the heat and humidity, the Media Challenge race was being turned into a "fun run." The Email also went on to say that several teams had backed out entirely - but begged Team NYT to put on our team shirts and come out to the park to run the course. So we did (that's our turnout in the photo above - aren't we cute?).
And NO ONE ELSE WAS THERE, save for three guys in ABC shirts. And their studios are right next to the starting line. But Team NYT put on our game faces, and we ran that race for fun. It was hot. It was humid. We were all soaked with sweat when we crossed the finish line at the stoplight across from Tavern on the Green. Most of us stopped at least once at a water fountain or to catch an extra breath. But we did it.
I think we deserve a boost in the standings. What say you? I feel like if you organize a race series for the summer, you have to know that it's going to be hot and humid. You might have to give your runners some pointers on hydration and proper running attire for the weather. But the cancellations have been frustrating, especially since our team has a lot of energy and enthusiasm this year. I hear that in 2011, the series is going to be held from April to June - a change I can get behind.
In the meantime - August 25: see you there, media. It's going to be humid. Deal.
Update: Wednesday, August 25
It was indeed humid. But after two days of pouring rain in the city, it was also in the 70s and thus tolerable.
I ran my fastest Media Challenge time yet - 27:45! I axed 40 seconds off my time from June. My time earned me the honor of being the top female scorer for Team NYT - so cool.
And even better than that - at our reception at BBQ's (free cornbread! Even if it's sweet...but again, I digress), Team NYT reclaimed third place from HBO by a margin of 10 points for the season. Our organizers really did a crack job this season, and I'm looking forward to working with them again. And, of course, to seeing how fast I can get on our double-loop course.
This has been a year of big running accomplishments for me - a sub-2 half marathon, winning my age group in a race, top scorer for Team NYT. But even though running is a fairly individual sport - for the most part, you compete only against yourself - I really enjoy being part of a team, whether it is the New York Times Running Club or Team in Training. I like having people to run with and I like having people to socialize with after we run. I like knowing people are expecting me, whether in Prospect Park at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning for a long, slow run or in Central Park at 7 p.m. for a fast, hard 5K+. With Team NYT, it has been great meeting people from different departments of the paper - I rarely get off the Editorial floor, but now I see people in the elevator or the cafeteria who say hello and strike up conversations, and it is so nice to have friendly faces to break up what can be the anonymous monotony of a big city office tower.
So congratulations again to Team New York Times! See you all in 2011. (But hopefully I'll see you at lunch before then.)
(Photo courtesy Till Wirth. Click on photo to expand and see the whole gang.)
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