Bed Stuy 10K, October 11, 2009

Gorgeous fall day. Brooklyn neighborhood that I haven't explored. Both good elements for a fun race. I really enjoyed this one - I kept it slow so I could enjoy the great scenery. I loved all the little kids who cheered on the racers! And the group with water at mile 3 - actually handing it to us rather than forcing us to mob a table! Nice touches.

And I enjoyed supporting Brooklyn. It was nice to do a local race that gives back to the community. I love New York Road Runners and all, but I see the most amazing spirit when I do smaller, more local races and it's very satisfying both as a New York City resident and a runner.

This was a good course - almost completely flat - with good signage. I was taking it easy today but I can see how it would be a great race to really run all-out.

All in all, a very chill way to spend my Sunday morning.

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 #8: The Race for Central Park (4M), July 18, 2009

This race was not a race for me at all - more of a prelude to a fine breakfast of French toast - but I enjoyed it.



The course went counterclockwise from E. 68th Street up to the 102nd St. transverse, then down to the 72nd St. transverse - a hilly, but pleasant-enough route, with the biggest hill coming in the first mile. I finished in a cool 40 minutes flat, a solid conversational pace. It was hot and humid and I'd been having some health issues so I didn't feel like pushing it.

I also got a really nice dri-fit t-shirt for doing the Race for Central Park. Not enough of those in the world. It made up for the fugly tank top I received at the Dash (no Splash) 10K last month.

Coming up in September: race #9, the final race in my odyssey to NYC 2010. And I'll be running...a mile. Yup, I signed up for the Fifth Avenue Mile. It even starts at 10 a.m. for optimal sleeping in beforehand. I have to find a more decadent breakfast than French toast for that one.

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.

Dash, no Splash

I almost titled this post WTF, NYRR? So I will pose that question again: WTF, NYRR?

A few weeks ago I signed up for the New York Road Runners Dash & Splash 10K - a marathon qualifier - for the day before my birthday next weekend. The race was supposed to involve running a loop of Central Park and then jumping into Lasker Pool afterward. Dash, then splash. Get it? I got it. And I was really excited about it. I love to swim. I love to run. I love the idea of combining the two and celebrating my birthday in the process.

Now I had gone on the New York City parks department website a while back looking for information on the city public pools. I use the Sunset Park pool in the summers for lap swimming/cross training and I have great love for it, so I was looking to see when I could start using it this year. The Parks Department site said the pools open for the season on June 27. So I figured NYRR had permission to open Lasker up for the runners who registered for the race.

Then I went on the NYRR website this week, to discover that the Dash & Splash is now the Dash. Someone there apparently realized the pool would not actually be open.

I'm really angry. Maybe a lot of people who do these races have a lot of disposable income, but I don't, and I pick and choose my races carefully. I specifically chose this one for the pool experience. Now it's just a regular old 10K in Central Park - I would have done the women's-only Mini 10K this weekend if I had known. Of course, NYRR won't let me switch, or give me a refund. It's a total waste of my $17. So I am just going to seethe a bit.

To add insult to injury, the NYRR website also says that "misting stations" will be available after the race. Hmph.

Look here for my certain-to-be-cranky race report next weekend...

NYC 2010 Qualifying Races #5 and #6: Healthy Kidney 10K, May 16, 2009 and the Brooklyn Half Marathon, May 30, 2009

Here's the story of two races, because your blogger is lazy.



I ran the Healthy Kidney 10K on May 16, a mere three weeks after my marathon. It was my first time doing anything other than a slow, lazy loop around Prospect Park since 26.2 (not counting the miles we ran while cheering on fellow Team in Training spring season folks at the New Jersey Marathon on May 3). Kelly and I drove to the race and ran it together, but failed to anticipate the lack of parking. No spaces ANYWHERE. It didn't help that I'd been running late that morning to meet her and felt terrible. We finally found a spot on the East Side, across the park from the race start, with five minutes to go until gun time and no quarters to be found on either of our persons or in the car. We called a friend to come fill the meter and ran. We later calculated that we ran a full additional mile to the starting line. It started raining on us halfway there (OF COURSE) so we jumped into the queue to cross the starting line soaking wet. Five minutes later, it stopped raining but all of us runners were soaked to the bone for the duration.

I enjoyed this race, mainly for the course, which was a full loop of Central Park that minimized the uphills. I love the uptown part of Central Park, which is quiet and woody and doesn't feel like an urban park at all.

The race took us about an hour to complete at our post-marathon recovery pace and we ended up getting a parking ticket for our troubles - our friend arrived just as the ticket was being written. But, we finished, we felt good and we got another qualifier under our proverbial belts. The tech t-shirt souvenirs were nice. And more people, presumably, have healthier kidneys.



The Brooklyn Half Marathon was yesterday. I had an unusual preparation strategy for this race, which went something like this:

5 weeks prior: Run full marathon in 92-degree heat and 67% humidity.

4 weeks prior: Run 7 miles with friend at the end of her full marathon in pouring rain and persistent chill (foreshadowing. That means keep reading.). Begin running slow 3-mile loops in park with friend.

3 weeks prior: Run 10-K (see: Healthy Kidney 10K saga, above). Continue running in park. Begin taking circuit training class that consists of running uphill holding water bottles and a lot of pushups. Question sanity.

2 weeks prior: Run 7 miles through Brooklyn and across Manhattan Bridge with friends. Become winded. At end of week, run 5-mile loop in Prospect Park, successfully and without massive exhaustion. Sign up for Brooklyn Half Marathon. Plan to run an 8- or even 10-miler beforehand.

1 week prior: Become sick. Go home from work sick the next day. Call out of work sick the day after that. Cough up both lungs to the consternation of several coworkers when you do return to work.

Two days prior: Take the kind of cold medicine that makes you contemplate flying out of your office window (the kind you can only buy behind the pharmacy counter because SOME PEOPLE decided to make meth out of it, that's how awesome it is). Under influence of aforementioned cold medicine, make plans to meet up with lots of people at Brooklyn Half Marathon.

One day prior: Stop taking cold medicine because the heat advisory on the New York Road Runners website calls out pseudoephedrine, aka the meth-maker, as a dehydrator. Foiled again! Drink lots and lots of water. Miss speed-y feeling. Understand meth addicts. Cough. Write gently mocking Facebook status about how New York Road Runners thinks 77 degrees Fahrenheit is hot, and how you ran a marathon in 92-degree heat, haha, in an attempt to psych yourself up. Cough.

Morning of: Exit apartment. Think, hmmm, it is warm out. Comfort self by knowing that New York Road Runners posted that heat advisory, and thus will be out in force with extra water and Gatorade and misters (more foreshadowing). Smugly chuckle, thinking of Nashville.

I met my friend Alex and her friend Michelle at the 15th Street entrance to Prospect Park at 7:15 and we headed to bagcheck. Bagcheck was my first sign that New York Road Runners might have underestimated the wave of humanity that was running the Brooklyn Half. It wasn't disorganized, but the people manning the checkpoints seemed overwhelmed. I saw a lot of TNTers along the way, which was nice, and we all wished each other good luck.

Alex, Michelle and I got into our starting corral, which seemed to be for everyone who had signed up with a pace time over 8 minutes. That was a lot of people. It took us about 20 minutes to cross the starting line. The first wave of runners passed us while we were still waiting, in fact.

At one point during the endless patter of runners making it to the starting mat, a familiar, heavily Brooklyn-accented voice rose over the din. Alex and I turned to each other and said, "Is that Marty Markowitz?" Indeed, it was Marty himself on the mike, welcoming runners to his fiefdom.

I made the mistake just before the start line of bypassing a Port-a-Potty, which came back to haunt me about three miles later.

The first few miles were good. Tackled the North Hill in the park with no problem. Even made it around the morale-sucking lower stretch of the park still feeling cheerful. Appreciated the separation of the faster runners (those who lapped us at the start) from those of us who still had to go up the North Hill again here.

Second time up the North Hill, the siren call of the Port-a-Potty became too much to handle (or was that just the smell, which you could detect from the road?) and I veered off, telling Alex and Michelle I'd see them at the finish. I estimate that this took me about 10 minutes, but there's no way to know for sure since although I was wearing a watch, I didn't actually look at it the entire race. I passed Coach Lisa and MK somewhere around here, as well as some of the Pace 4 Success girls.

Then it was around to the South Hill. I wanted to stop for some water here before exiting the park and hitting the shadeless stretch of Ocean Parkway. When I got to the water table, I got elbowed, hard, in the back by some guy who reached over my head (not an easy feat) and grabbed one of the few cups that was resting on the table away from me. Thanks, dude. And then I realized - there was nothing else on the table. No Gatorade, no water. One woman said that the faster people had drunk everything. Um, so the slow runners get screwed? The volunteers were basically just standing around looking overwhelmed and not getting out the cups. At this point people were just reaching into the Gatorade and water barrels themselves and scooping out what they needed. I felt badly for anyone running this race for time, since I'm sure they either lost valuable minutes here or risked dehydration by skipping it entirely. I took a Gu on my way out of the park.

Out on Ocean Parkway was where I'd anticipated hitting a morale dip. Surprisingly, I still felt great. The water stations continued to suck and I was glad I was carrying my own Gatorade. I saw Alex again and we ran together for a bit until she stopped to stretch. I stopped once to adjust my shoelaces because I felt blisters forming. I saw Jasmine just before mile 10 and she said I looked great. Then I saw the sign that said "Misting Station Ahead." Misting station! All right! The awesome misting stations in Nashville totally saved Kelly and me. We had run through these giant sprinkler setups several times and used them to wet our hats along the way. I was all ready to forgive NYRR for the water station debacles. And then.

I got to the "misting station" only to find that it was ONE GUY. HOLDING A FIRE HOSE. UPRIGHT (since you obviously can't blast a crowd with a fire hose). I even asked him if he was the misting station, and he sheepishly answered that he was. He did soak my hat, though. I laughed myself silly for another couple of miles and then realized I had passed the 12-mile marker and was in the homestretch, baby!

I saw Pamela and Melanie here - Melanie wasn't officially running, but she got us up on the boardwalk and Pamela and I ran in together. Lots of crowd support on the boardwalk, and the Coney Island publicity people did a good job of fixing the accidents-waiting-to-happen that were all the loose boards along here.

I finished in what NYRR tells me was 2:26, but if I subtract my restroom stop I end up with something around 2:16-2:20, I think. Pretty awesome for someone still in marathon recovery, no?

The finish area was chaotic but I got my stuff, made sure Pamela was OK (she had a massive blister), saw Alex, and met up with Jess and Erin and Chris. Jess, Erin and I ran into the freezing-cold Atlantic to ice our legs, and then got some fried food. Good times, all considered. I really had a fabulous run - never really felt tired or hurt or over- or under-hydrated. I would run this again in a heartbeat, but hope that NYRR gets its act together before next year and makes for better water stops and a more organized area at the start and at the finish.