Media Challenge: Summer 2010

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.)

JackRabbit Anyone Can Win 5K, April 13, 2010

The JackRabbit Anyone Can Win 5K had the best premise for a race that I've seen yet. No watches. No mile markers. No clocks. Nobody wins at the finish line.

Instead, JackRabbit asked us to predict our finishing times for a 5K when we signed up for the race. The people who got closest to their predicted times would win - not the first people to cross the finish line. And they have some great prizes - JackRabbit gift certificates! Visions of keeping myself in Vanilla Gu all summer long danced through my head.

We also were asked to chip in $20 to keep Prospect Park pretty. Easy enough! I do love me some Prospect Park.

Now. My fastest 5K ever was 25:08, run during a test in the midst of my current Team in Training season. Because it was pitch-black and midwinter at the time of the test, we ran the 5K in a loop around the top half of the park and Prospect Park West. So the course was more or less flat. This race was a full loop around the park, which meant hills. Of the South and North variety.

Also important: I really thought I was going to die during the 5K test. I was getting a cold and could barely breathe. Also, I dropped my glove in the middle and lost about 30 seconds going back and picking it up.

So when I registered for the Anyone Can Win 5K, I based my time not on that test - because I had no desire to feel like that again - but rather on my PR half marathon pace of 9:10. I wrote down 27:30.

TNT BK ran this race in lieu of our normal Tuesday night practice, so it was great to be outside on a pretty night with all my teammates and coaches. It's not often that I get the benefit of my coaches cheering me on during a little 5K race, so that was great.

Know thyself. This was the theme of the night. And I don't. Know myself, that is. Because I ran the 5K in 25:15, possibly a bit faster. That's my 5K PR for an official race, in case you are counting. And also just seven seconds slower than that 5K test. Which I should have written down instead of the slower time, because I'd have won big!

I chalk this up to what every coach, every experienced runner, every race veteran will tell you: Don't go out too fast. To which I say: Then don't start your races on a downhill.

In sum, I'm pretty proud of myself for my PR - it was just about 8 months ago, in August of 2009, in Prospect Park, in a race sponsored by JackRabbit, that I ran my first 5K in under 30 minutes. So I've shaved off over four minutes in one training season, in a distance I really don't enjoy that much (I could go on and on about this, but I'll keep it short and just say that a 5K is a warmup for me.).

I just really wanted that gift certificate! Time to get serious about pacing. And get to know myself a bit better - because apparently I really can run a 5K in 25 minutes and change.

NYRR Fred Lebow Classic 5-Mile, January 9, 2010

That's me, way over on the right with my foot going out of frame. I sacrificed a fair amount of warmth to sport some Team in Training Gear and have my number out prominently during this race, and this is the treatment I get from Brightroom. Hmph.

So there's no photographic proof, but there is proof in the form of numbers. And those numbers show I kicked some major ass in this race. Five miles in 43:40. What those numbers don't show you, and only my new watch (Timex Ironman, a Christmas present from my wonderful dad) showed me, was that I ran negative splits the whole way - and finished with a 7:46 final mile. Kick. Ass.

Did I mention it was about 20 degrees, less with the windchill, at the start? It was cold. Very, very cold. I had to talk to a friend for a few miles just to keep my face from going numb. However, my best races tend to happen in weather like this - I fade quickly in heat.

I started this blog last year with the goal of becoming a runner, as opposed to someone who signed up to do a half marathon and felt compelled to follow through. In the last year I ran a marathon, two half marathons and qualified for the 2010 New York City Marathon by running nine New York Road Runners qualifying races and volunteering at a 10th - another goal I set out to chronicle here. Running my marathon was really hard. I didn't love all of those qualifying races. But I did become a runner. I go out for runs now and it's no longer a struggle. It's become something I have to do, a part of me. I was away from the city over the holidays for three weeks, and while I was gone I made an effort to run regularly, in places both familiar and un-. I found a playground that time forgot near my grandmother's house and discovered that hill training pays off when running in my parents' neighborhood (at one point I found myself running perpendicular to a hill).

Team in Training reeled me in again this year. I signed up to run the Long Branch Half Marathon in New Jersey on May 2 with them, as a way of beginning my training for NYC. They asked me to serve as a mentor captain, which was an honor, and I'm enjoying the challenge of keeping my fellow mentors plugged in. I'll probably follow this season with the fall one and train with them for NYC. There's not enough space on this blog to talk in detail about how much the TNT family has given me, but suffice it to say I owe them a lot more than my fitness, and a lot more than I would likely fundraise even if I participated in every season for the rest of my running-able life.

2009 was one of the most difficult years of my life, personally. I dealt with a salary cut and layoffs at work, lost my grandmother, miscarried twice, struggled with a lot of Deep Thoughts and overall spent the year wondering what, exactly, I had done to deserve such a karmic blow. It was a year of loss. Running kept me sane (well, that's a questionable word - perhaps "balanced" is better) through it all. Remembering that I set goals to improve my speed, my times, my race performances and to qualify for that marathon kept me going. I owe many people - coaches, running partners, friends and family - lots of thanks for getting me through, and here's to a better 2010.

NYC 2010 Qualifying Race #9: The Fifth Avenue Mile - September 26, 2009

So this was it. #9. The last chapter in my nearly yearlong effort to qualify for the 2010 New York City Marathon. And I did it. WOW did I do it.

Before setting out for this race, I was in a terrible mood. I went to meet Kelly on race morning and all I could think about was how cranky I was. I was also so tired that I walked past the Borough Hall subway station I needed to enter in order to get there. Once I actually made it in, I found out the 4 or 5 trains I wanted weren't running, and I needed to take the 2 to Fulton Street and transfer.

Fulton Street, if you haven't had the pleasure of its company, is a labyrinth. Every time I'm in there, I expect to see the Minotaur. To get to the 4/5 trains from the 2 requires a lengthy walk, but that walk is not in a straight line. It involves stairs and walking along other trains' platforms and just when you think that you will surely emerge in New Jersey, finally, you just have to turn one more corner and climb one more flight of stairs and then wait for 20 minutes, but eventually the 4/5 will come. This really helped my mood, by the way.

Kelly and I ran into Coach Jaz (on her birthday, coming to cheer us all on even though she had a leg injury - THAT is dedication!) on the 4/5 platform, which was nice as she gave us a pep talk while we waited (and waited). As I talked, I realized that this race I'd been joking about all summer was making me far more nervous than I'd realized. Hence at least part of my morning crankiness. Here's the deal: I'm a terrible sprinter. It also takes me about three miles to warm up during a run - for this reason, I hate running 5Ks because they are all warm-up to me. So the idea of running one mile as fast as I possibly could was getting me down.

The pace on my NYRR bibs says 8:52 min/mile. I ran that pace during a 5-mile race in January in Central Park, in the middle of my marathon training when I was in peak shape for that distance. I've never come close since - I ran 9:16 min/mile in a 10K over the summer, but I had no real concept of ever matching my 8:52.

Jaz reminded me that I'd been taking her strength training class for four months (save some time out for health issues) and that I had a lot more in me than I was giving myself credit for. She said she thought Kelly and I would both break 8 minutes in the mile. We laughed.

Once we arrived at 80th Street and 5th Avenue, we checked our bags at the starting line and got into the corral. Because this race was conducted in heats by gender and age, there was only one corral of women 30-39 running with us rather than the usual long line of gates and runners seeded by pace. We chatted with some friends. I took a look around and regretted by decision to wear a long-sleeve shirt since everyone else seemed to be in tank tops or sports bras. But it was cold! (Well, 60ish. But I'm from Tennessee.)

Then the gun went off. A real gun. A really loud gun. All of us looked around like, was that a gun? and then realized that we needed to run. And so we ran. I tripped over the starting line (awesome) because I wanted to make sure my D-tag registered on the start mat. Because everyone in the corral had different paces, I wasn't surrounded by people running the same speed. Some people shot out ahead while others settled into comfortable jogs. I decided I didn't want to be in the latter group, though I easily could have been. All I needed was to finish the Fifth Avenue Mile to be in the marathon, I said - I don't need to RACE it.

But I did. I passed about 10 people and thought, damn, I am running really fast. Then I passed a marker indicating I'd gone a quarter mile. My lungs started to hurt. Then I hit 72nd Street and the half-mile marker. My body was in serious pain. But I could still breathe. I decided not to push more. Hit the three-quarter-mile mark, felt like my lungs were going to burst, and found a little more energy. When I hit the finish mat, I doubled over in pain and exhaustion. Then I looked up at the clock, which still had not hit 8 minutes. I broke 8 minutes! Then suddenly people were everywhere. The finish was a mob scene of people wanting free bagels (um, you only ran a mile) and water bottles (WAY cool souvenir, by the way, NYRR - I will gladly take more of these!!!) and their bags, which the organizers helpfully threw all over the ground in the same line of people clamoring for bagels and water bottles.

I found Kelly and we knew we had both broken 8 miles. We headed for a subway, went back to Brooklyn, and were on the Brooklyn Heights promenade eating not-free-but-much-better bagels an hour after we started our race. Not bad!

NYRR didn't post results for the Mile until later Saturday afternoon, by which time I was at my father-in-law's house on Long Island. I looked up the results on my iPhone and blinked once, twice, three times: 7:02.

THAT'S RIGHT EVERYONE. 7:02. SEVEN OH TWO. SEVEN MINUTES AND TWO SECONDS.

I only started running in May 2008. At that point I couldn't conceive of finishing the half marathon I'd signed up to do. Now I've done three half marathons and one full marathon, and I've qualified for my second full marathon. And somewhere along the way I got strong enough both to overcome my own self-doubt and to run a 7:02 mile. Thanks, running.

Help Greg Fight Cancer 5K, August 25, 2009

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.

NYC 2010 Qualifying Race #7: Dash 10K, June 13, 2009

PR!!!

I ran the Dash in 57:08. So very excited. A nice birthday gift to myself!

That said, this race was hard for me. My last two, the Healthy Kidney 10K and the Brooklyn Half, felt great. Today was humid and I've been fighting the end of a cold for weeks, and it was driving me nuts for the last two miles of this.

The course was largely uphill, which I knew it would be, but ouch. I could really have used the lost-but-not-forgotten Splash part of this race afterwards, too - so very sweaty.

But I set out with a goal of finishing a 10K in under an hour, and I did it. So I can't be too disappointed, although I think a new goal for the summer will be to improve my speed as well as my strength as a runner. Every time I try to run fast, I have zero stamina and it's frustrating. Good for marathons, but I'm not generally running marathons.