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.)

Cherry Tree 10-Miler, February 22, 2009

Yes, I did sign up for two races in one weekend. Perhaps, considering my wonky knee, not the smartest decision I've ever made. But I did cross the finish line of both of them, so that's saying something.

Today's race was the Cherry Tree 10-Miler, sponsored by the Prospect Park Track Club -- the same people who sponsored my first race of this Year of Running, on New Year's Eve. Unlike that race, bagwatch at the Cherry Tree was in an actual tent with an actual numeric system set up placing bags, as opposed to just putting them under a tree that had crime tape wrapped around it. The volunteers were some of the nicest people I've ever encountered at a race -- all of them, without fail, friendly and smiling.

This was not a marathon qualifier. It was our TNT BK practice for this weekend. I guess you'd have to say I ran it for...fun? To push the limits of my endurance? Yes, that sounds better.

The big downside of this race was that it was three loops of Prospect Park. I run this loop on a pretty regular basis -- at least once a week, generally -- but I can't say I've ever had the urge to do it three times in a row. Remember when I compared the turnarounds in the Bronx Half Marathon to Chevy Chase talking to his kids about Big Ben and Parliament in "National Lampoon's European Vacation"? This was more like "Groundhog Day."


I ran this race at a pretty fast clip, considering. I finished in 1:32, meaning I maintained a fairly consistent 9+-minute mile.

I would have to say the high point of the race came as I was rounding the top of the park on my second loop and a bicyclist squirted his water bottle directly into my right sock, evidently as revenge because my foot went over the center line between the running lane and the bike lane. Please note that he was one person with two whole lanes to himself, as opposed to me who was one of hundreds of people in two lanes of the road. Effing bikers. If you are a cyclist and you're reading this, squirting water into a runner's shoe is not necessarily going to keep her out of your lane, especially if she's there because she's trying to keep an injured knee from falling on the wrong side of a steep drop in the road. It will, however, make her really angry and possibly prone to blisters. On the plus side, I was not the victim of another cycler I saw who power-snotted (thanks to Kelly for this almost onomatopoeic term) into the throngs of runners as he sped by.

Kelly and I ran together most of the way, until our third trip up the North Hill when I inexplicably became dizzy and faintly nauseous. This has never happened to me during a run before. I stopped for water, walked through the water stop, reminded myself about who I run for and why, and charged (well, plugged away) up the North Hill. My stomach was very...sloshy, for lack of a better word (and sorry to those of you reading this). I kept trying to think of things to distract me, but I just kept seeing Groundhog Day in my head.

But I did eventually finish, got my chocolate milk, got out of my soaking wet clothes (it was drizzly and I was hot and sweaty - bad combination), felt much better and determined with the coaches that my problem was not enough salt and/or not enough carbs. I'm not unfamiliar with getting dizzy from low blood sugar in my non-running life, so that was my first thought, but I also think that on a warm day I need to be drinking more Gatorade or putting an electrolyte tablet in my water bottle.

I feel pretty hardcore, now that I'm sitting on my couch in sweatpants drinking coffee and looking forward to the Oscars dresses, I mean, the telecast. Two races! One weekend! Booyah!

NYC 2010 Qualifying Race #2: Gridiron Classic, February 1, 2009

I ran the 4-mile Gridiron Classic this morning in Central Park with my friend Jess. Because it's Super Bowl Sunday, get it? The race was accompanied by a football-throwing competition that neither Jess nor I participated in.

This was a fun race -- coming on the heels of my 14-mile run yesterday, there was no way I was going to run this hard. Jess and I ended up pacing ourselves well, hitting 10-minute miles at each split and speeding up a bit at the very end. We were pleased.

I would be remiss in discussing the Gridiron Classic if I did not mention the Very Special National Anthem singing at the beginning. If you are reading this, and you are the person who sang the national anthem this morning, please don't take this the wrong way but you should seek out one of the many karaoke bars in the greater New York metropolitan area and leave the anthem to, say, Jennifer Hudson. It's not your fault it's a difficult song to sing.

He was doing some kind of fake vibrato thing with his voice and hit a real clunker of a note on the "And the rockets' red glare" line, which caused me to snort-laugh, which caused Jess to laugh, which made everyone in our starting corral laugh. It set the tone for the day and reminded me that running can just be a fun morning outside with up to 4,999 of my fellow citizens. Running with Jess helped too -- she makes everything more fun.

We had brunch afterwards that came with complimentary alcohol -- yes please! -- and thoroughly enjoyed our cheesy eggs and vodka. I came home and took a long nap, one of the greatest pleasures of running.

Now I'm watching the actual Super Bowl. Or, rather, the commercials, as I'm still stewing over the Titans' playoff loss. Next year, Tennessee.

Here are my race results from today.

NYC 2010 Qualifying Race #1: The Fred Lebow Classic, January 10, 2009

On January 10, I completed the first of nine qualifying races (and one stint as a volunteer) to qualify for the New York City Marathon in 2010. I've always dreamed about running NYC, even before I knew I could actually run. I watch the marathon every year, cheering for friends and family and occasional really hot Italian men who respond well to my cries of "Forza!"

The race was the five-mile Fred Lebow Classic, named for the man who founded the NYC Marathon. A good way to kick off the process.

Team in Training Brooklyn ran this marathon qualifier as part of our training, so I met my group in Central Park around 7:30 for the 8 a.m. race. Riding the subway to Manhattan on race mornings is always fun. I'm always the only runner for several stops on the Q train through Brooklyn. When I get to downtown Brooklyn I start seeing people with numbers filter on to the train, and we exchange knowing looks at each other's running tights. By the time we hit the transfer point for the uptown 4/5/6 trains, the platform is full of runners, and more and more pack on as the train gets closer to Central Park.

This race started on 99th Street and the East Drive in Central Park. Bagwatch was on the road leading up from 102nd Street, so I checked my stuff. For the first time I realized that NYRR's bagwatch system is according to the LAST number on your bib, not the first. Oops.

I met my teammates and we took a few photos and commiserated about the cold -- at the start line they said it was 24F out. Brrr. Then we headed to the start. I had a pink bib, putting me in the starting corral for the 9-10-minute/milers, reflecting my 9:22/mile pace -- a personal best for myself that I set in a NYRR race in December.

The gun went off and we were off! Thanks to judicious layering I wasn't as cold in this race as I was in December, and I felt good. The first mile was packed with people and I was frustrated because I couldn't get a good rhythm established. Once the pack cleared out, I was on my way and feeling good. According to my watch, I was hitting nine-minute miles (at least until I hit the wrong button on my watch and lost my time at mile 3).

I yelled at a woman in a giant fur coat walking three tiny hairless dogs and a husband who crossed the street in front of me by the reservoir. Hello, there are signs all over the park announcing a road race. Don't mess up my pace!

By this time I was broiling hot and had unzipped my jacket and stripped off both pairs of gloves as I headed for the end. I crossed the finish line feeling great -- I did the math and figured that I had come in under 45 minutes, setting another personal record. I had figured I would run a 47-minute race.

Here's a photo of me crossing the finish line. I had my number on the back of my jacket so they didn't get identifiable shots of me running, but I'm glad to have this one. And yes Mom, I put my gloves back on right after that.

Here are my official results. Check out that 8:52/mile pace! This weekend for qualifying race #2, I'll get a different color bib and a new starting corral for my efforts.