I met a friend for drinks Friday night which probably wasn’t the best lead in to Saturday mornings Lesbian and Gay Pride Run. I only had 3 drinks yet felt like it hit me harder than usual and despite being home and in bed by 11p, I was tired when I woke up for my race. Ben decided to sleep in for the first time in a month so I was left creeping around the apartment trying to get myself together. One thing I have noticed about New York Road Runners race starts is they tend to be laid back with you getting there on time, until the totally aren’t laid back and close the corrals 15 minutes early. Because I was running late, I figured it would be an early corral closing day. The start was on 69th street on the west side so about 1a a mile and a half from home. I jogged about half of that and was already drenched in sweat by the time I hit the corrals as the heat and humidity have been brutal for the past few weeks. This happened to be a super laid back race so I was there in plenty of time but was hoping I hadn’t expended too much energy in my jog down. Elite runners like to get a mile or two of sprints in prior to races, but I am not an elite runner so I like to do as little exercise as possible prior to the race to make sure I have energy during the race!
The race start was crowded and it too about a mile, or basically to the first real hill, to see it thin out at all. My goal was to keep my pace below 10:00 and I was happy I was able to do this on mile one despite the congestion. Mile 2 was also a sub 10 even though it included Cat hill and mile 3 was fairly easy. I knew mile 4 was going to test me and it did. It involves 3 rolling hills at just the point of the race where you really don’t have much left. I struggled a lot and although I have yet to upload for the exact split, it was closer to 11:00 in mile 4. I walked for about 15 seconds at a water station to regroup and then ran the rest of the way to the finish. I knew I needed to pick up my pace for my sub 50:00 but I really didn’t have much left in me. I’m not know for my amazing kick at the end and despite having my Dad, Josh and Ben cheering…I just couldn’t pull it out. My official race time? 50:11. So, it was definitely a PR, but will taunt me just like my 10K PR which is 1:00:11. See a theme?
Race #2 of the weekend was the Achilles Hope & Possibility Race and I dragged Josh along for this one. It benefits runners with disabilities tending towards artificial limbs. Heather Mills was on hand to start us off (although not running because she was coming back from an injury) and Prince Harry was also there walking with veterans who had lost limbs in Iraq. Governor Patterson and Cindy McCain rounded our the very political crowd although I didn’t see any of them in person so that was somewhat of a let down. This race was also extremely hot and humid and right before the start I met up with a running buddy. She mentioned her goal time was to finish under an hour which I was certain we could do and we ended up running together the whole race. Some days, right from the start, you just know that you aren’t shooting for a PR and this was one of those days. Despite how inspiring it is to watch people run with artificial legs and know that you should continue to just keep running, I was just flat from the start and dying for water at every break. To truly drink water in a race, you need to stop and so we did at every water station. We clocked in at 54:41 which frankly is shocking to me in that I though we were even slower than that. I was happy it was over and have resolved to not be hung over for future races (except for my Chicago 5k because I am meeting up with college friends the night before thus it’s almost guaranteed I will be hung over) although I think if this heat and humidity would just go away, I will have a real shot at much better PRs.
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