season finale

Some TV show season finales have a perfect story wrapped up in 1 hour or less.  Others are a cliffhanger.  Others…you don’t know the direction things are going.  If I’d compare my 2010 racing season to a TV show, and the Joe Kleinerman 10K to a TV season finale, I’d compare it to the last. 

Well in a way, this was a race of firsts.  First time I had to trek up to the NYRR offices to get my race bib.  Quite a change from the days when it was just a hop skip and jump across Central Park   Not to mention, the first time for a Central Park race that I’d have to travel there via subway.  Yeah, I had the 18-mile Tune-up back in September, but I had frontloaded by running up to the start.  Thankfully on race morning-I had no MTAfails…but I heard those on the east side weren’t so lucky as the 6 train didn’t behave as well as the A train did (just another reason why the west side is the best side…)  First time since February that I’ve had to bring out the tights for a race…30 degrees isn’t exactly shorts territory for me, even if I had the obnoxious pink socks   (I instead wore my LunaRacers to get the pink fix in.)  Oh and first time in awhile that I’ve used a normal watch instead of Mr. Garmin for the race-as Mr. Garmin’s buttons have been freezing up quite a bit in cold weather lately and I didn’t want to chance it happening during the race.

So I made it to the start in plenty of time (got off the subway a stop early and used running to the start from there as my warmup) and got into my red corral easily.  Yeah not sure what was up with that…as usually I’m yellow for points races/crowded races/stacked races.  And not only was it a points race with all the ringers, I knew it would be crowded…it had sold out a coupla weeks ago-probably since this is the last “9th race” that is relatively short and doesn’t cost $40 to run.  Other Flyers were in my corral and we chatted and tried to stay warm through the announcements (dear god they were piercingly loud, dont people know you don’t have to shout more than you need to on a loudspeaker?) and the national anthem and huddled together to try and stay warm.  The start seemed to have little fanfare…no “do we have clearance on the roadway” or anything else to make sure the roads were ready for us

And just like the start, my race had little fanfare….

I guess just from the first mile, I knew it wasn’t going to be my day.  Combination of the crowded start (see below) and my lack of hill training as of late…

down the first harlem hill...can you spot me?

By the 2nd mile, I knew any hope of a decent time (sub-50) was out, so pretty much just “tempoed” it, but this would still be slow for a tempo effort.  Oh, and those people in miles 5 and 6 shouting that I’m almost there can just shut it.  Dudes, I’ve run this loop millions of times, I know how far I have to go, and even 10 minutes left can seem like a long time.

my reaction to all those shouting "almost there!"

Even the last 1.2 miles, which I can usually pick up the pace on significantly…just felt flat.  Was happy to be done…50:27 on NYRR’s clock-yeah, that one second made such a difference

Anticlimactic.  I guess that’s the word to sum it up.  I mean yeah, I know I’ve been slacking since Chicago and it shows.  But I actually ran a better race right after being out for awhile due to the (sh)IT Band.  Maybe it’s a sign that I need to hang up the racing shoes for the remainder of 2010, and just concentrate on getting the base (and the hill training) back.

But on the other hand, I do have to give props to the Flyers women, our open, masters and vet teams had one of our best showings of the year, and our master blaster men (that one is for you, AP) did quite well too.  Congrats guys!!  I’m glad someone had a great season finale