clarity, or something like that

what a difference a year made for the Joe Kleinerman 10K…last year, i was under so much stress that I couldn’t think, see or breathe straight…meaning many walk breaks. this year, thanks to a nice Flyers holiday party, a couple of tough things taken care of, a fun Toys for Tots run with the Flyers the day before, I definitely was able to think more clearly.

As I had mentioned before, I was really not expecting much here, considering the projected crowds between the next-to-last marathon qualifier and last club points race of the year. The weather was nice and it looked like a good day for running. I jogged a mile to the baggage area to warm up and saw Runner26 and Flyer JT, so we headed over to the start area together…and were joined by Crazy Bandana-head-and he actually lined up with the 3 of us instead of the local elite area where he belonged 🙂 I saw camera in hand though, so guess this was just a fun run for him :-p So we were off…and the 4 of us actually started out together…that woulda made a cute picture. The mile-by-mile lowdown…

8:38-this split did not surprise me, due to Harlem Hill, but moreso how crowded it was…it didn’t really start opening up til mile 3. After this mile, I made it my goal-make sure this is my slowest split of the day.
8:12-west side hills…little better, but still crowded. Saw Flyer BC taking pictures just past 102nd street, and spotted Flyers DG and LG on running on the bridle path and cheering.
7:58-downhill mile! Uptown Girl was cheering near the reservoir…but not sure if she saw me, as who was right by me? Crazy Bandana!! Boy he really must have been taking this one easy…
8:13-around the bottom of the park…kinda uneventful. Saw a couple of Flyers running in the opposite direction
8:21-Cat Hill. Tried to take shorter strides, to not tire myself out on this hill…I was keeping position and even passing people, so I guess it worked. Dr. Evil passed me and tried to scare me but his evil tactics didn’t work this time. :-p
7:43-My plan was to try and run steady, then pick it up for the last 1.2…I guess it worked!! Saw Uptown Girl and JS cheering near the reservoir again, and BC taking more pictures (including this action shot) But dammit, a sidestich snuck up on me again…tried to breathe deep and ignore it…
1:35-sidestich still there, but figured I’d gut it out. The chute was narrow and crowded, but tried to push as hard as I could. Flyers JB and JA were cheering right before the last turn to the finish, which gave me a nice boost to kick it in!

Final time-50:40, 8:10 pace. Can’t really tell since there was not an official 5K split, but looks like I may have run negative splits. And actually, I was a little surprised to see a time still in the 50s, I actually thought it was going to take 10 minutes to do the last 1.2 miles…guess no one is good at math 5 miles into a race. :-p

Hung around for a bit after the finish, chatted with other Flyers…but dammit, no Krispy Kremes!! I thought this was tradition for this race 😦 Did an easy coupla cooldown miles up/down CPW to give me 10 miles for the day (leaving me less than a mile shy of 30 miles for the week)

So, this was a good workout…yep, workout, not race. I have honestly come to the conclusion that when you are not in the 74% AG group-you really can’t expect to run your best in these ridiculously crowded races. So, I think the plan for next year will be as follows…use the NYRR races to get my 9 qualifiers in/support the team for points races/do long runs-but if I am chasing a time goal-look outside NYRR (with the exception of races like the Mini 10K and Club Champs, where I can get a clean start.) Again-any suggestions for good (local) non-NYRR races are welcome!!

if it ain’t broke…

“what was up with all the f*cking hills?”
“this started too damn early.”
“it took forever to get here.”
“why was this scheduled the day after yom kippur?”
“this sucked.”

And that was just a sampling of what was heard after today’s Queens half. A new date, start time and course change wound up turning what was my favorite NYRR half into my least favorite. I absolutely loved the old course-a 2-looper through College Point and Malba, not too hilly, in late April/early May so the weather was always great, and I was always able to consistently run under 1:50 (1:47 and 1:48, to be exact.)

But this year, it was decided to change the course from a 2-looper to a 1-looper including Whitestone as well. Which forced a new date in September and an earlier start time (7 am)…which seemed to cause a bunch of logistical issues. With a 7am start time, you can’t really rely on public transportation, so the bus from NYRR is the best bet. However, they didn’t really plan for that, and the bus was sold out early (thank god I got my ticket early!) and left a lot of peeps scrambling to find either a ride or some type of alternate way out to Queens. Second, the date was less than ideal, being that yesterday was Yom Kippur, which meant fasting for 24 hours. Yeah…great half-marathon prep.

I wasn’t sure how I’d do, my training had not been going well ever since the San Francisco Half, and it was warmer than I would like…but was hoping to get under 1:50. I made it out there in one piece, though the bus driver kept driving in circles once we got to College Point…I was thisclose to faking being sick so I could walk. But we got there, and there were lots of people sitting down in the dark, trying to kill an hour…seemed like the marathon start. Saw NSA, and Johnny and a few other Flyers and chatted. Finally it was time to get to the start…oh, and anyone note in Mary Wittenberg’s speech, that “we were a part of history, there’s never been a race start at 7 am.” Um…didn’t the NYC Half start at 7 am? Not to mention the old-school late-August version of the Manhattan Half? Anyway, off the subject here.

So yeah, we started. First mile was slower than I wanted, there was quite a bottleneck in the first mile…made up for it a little on the 2nd…slowed on the 3rd and had a feeling it was not gonna be my day…never, ever again will I do a half marathon the day after Yom Kippur. I definitely was not properly fueled, even though I ended the fast a coupla hours early and tried to eat as much as possible yesterday evening and this morning…these mile splits tell a story of someone who hit the wall hard at mile 4, and was just trying to hang on for the last 9 miles…

1. 8:42
2. 8:18
3. 8:42
4. 8:59
5. 9:06
6. 9:08
7. 9:11
8. 8:44
9. 8:58
10. 9:13
11. 9:31
12. 9:01
13. 9:20

Last .1 :53

The goals kept changing from “1:50” to “1:55” to “just get in under 2 hours.” Hell, at one point a DNF sounded appealing-I was so off my goal time, what did I have to prove by finishing? But I didn’t know how I’d get back to the start and my baggage (and my family was taking me out for an early birthday dinner later in the day, so I needed to earn the extra calories.) The scenery on the course was nice, though I was too delirious and too busy climbing to appreciate it…I thought I was hill trained before today, the hills on this course killed me-especially that one in mile 13 that I actually had to walk up. And to put things in perspective-SF was easier than this!! There were at least a good share of downhills and flats in the SF half. Here, I felt like we were going uphill the entire time. (You can see the elevation here…)

Finally, somehow, I made it to the end…a bunch of Reservoir Dog guys who had finished cheered for me in the last .1 mile (thanks guys!! I really needed to hear that)…crossed the finish line in 1:57:46 (8:59 pace)…I had never been so happy to be done with a half-marathon in my life. First thing I did was get ice from the med tent for my knees which hated all the climbing (they’re fine now!)…then was the usual game of “spot the blogger” on the way to get my bags…saw Moz, Crazy Bandana-head and Uptown Girl, in addition to other Flyers and Rez Dogs…the usual post-race recrapping. Thoughts on the new course among the masses were mixed, but the majority was a thumbs-down.

Not sure what to make of my race. I know there were things out of my control, but I know I’m capable of much, much better than a 1:57…I feel like I have to do something about my training, I just don’t know what!! I’m a little disappointed in running a PW today…2 minutes slower than last year’s Staten Island half (which you may remember, I was only doing as a training run…whereas I was trying to put in the effort this time!) But I’m a little sad that my favorite half is really no more…as this post title says, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!! If this course remains, I definitely will not be doing this race next year…and will need to look outside NYRR for some good halfs (any recommendations, anyone?)

great expectations

Now I finally know how the elite runners in last year’s NYC Marathon felt. With the most stacked field in awhile, the best conditions in awhile, the buzz was that this was going to be an exciting race, course records were going to fall…which as we all knew, didn’t happen.

That’s sorta how I felt about Saturday’s Club Team Championships. As far as Central Park races go, this was my favorite. The weather conditions called for an unseasonably cool day. The field was much, much smaller than normal (how bout 500 instead of 5000 peeps!) due to the club-only race and the separate men’s/women’s starts. Basically-all signs pointed to a good race…hence the “great expectations” in the title. Not to be…

Mile 1-8:03
Mile 2-7:52
Mile 3-8:13
Mile 4-8:19
Mile 5-7:43

Final result, 40:10 (8:02 pace)

Before anyone says it-I’m sure, just looking at the numbers, that it didn’t seem like a bad race. However-last year-when it was almost 20 degrees warmer, much more humid, and I had tired legs from marathon training, I did this race in 39 minutes. (And in fact, my recent SF half time, on a much tougher course, predicted 39 minutes for a 5-miler too…)

I’m still not sure what happened. First mile-I felt I was still warming up a bit…2nd mile I made up the time a little bit on the downhill…3rd mile had the least crowd support…4th mile was Cat Hill, but I actually did a little better than I thought I would there. I looked at my watch and saw that I’d need a 7:32 last mile to get under 40…could I do it? Although there was quite a bit of cheering, it seemed a little more subdued than last year (and it seemed that there were a couple of teams who went out of their way to not cheer for me) though the Flyers were great, as usual..I tried to push it, but wasn’t enough and was disappointed to see the 40:xx on my watch. Though apparently I wiped the disappointment off my face long enough to get nabbed by the NYRR photographer here…

But the non-competitve stuff was fun. I liked cheering our guys on in mile 1 and near the end, and our annual team picnic afterwards. And lots of the Flyer women, including myself were modeling our new fitted top…looked quite nice!! And later that afternoon, we took on CPTC in softball again…was a good time, but the fact that I was placed last in the lineup…I dunno, I felt once again like the fat, unathletic girl who always gets picked last for a team…meh.

As for the running stuff…I can’t quite figure out what is going on. I can run a decent half, but I just choke so badly in the short races. I have been doing speedwork-though I admit the last coupla months…hadn’t been going well between the mega-heat waves that always seem to crop up on Tuesdays, or the fact that some of the workouts were a little too long for hot days and I can’t seem to get the effort in. Weekly mileage is decent, long runs are decent, so I really think that’s where the problem is lying. Only problem is, I don’t know how to fix it…

Guess no one said it was gonna be easy…

she runs san francisco

The title is quite fitting-took it from the slogan on a tank top that I got at the Running Divas booth at the expo…

Anyway, I will start this race report off by the numbers…

1:49:21, 8:20 pace

Splits:
mile 1-8:01
mile 2-8:37
mile 3-8:47
miles 4-5.9-24:19 (8:23 avg)
mile 5.9-6.9-8:07
mile 6.9-7.9-7:43
mile 7.9-8.9-8:22
miles 8.9-10.9-16:40 (8:20 avg)
mile 10.9-11.9-8:45
mile 11.9-12.9-8:13
mile 12.9-13.1-1:47 (8:31 avg)

And now the report:

The day started for me around 4:30 am…thank god I was still on New York time and I got to sleep early the night before!! And learning from some other bloggers’ reports on the road, I made sure to bring bagels and PB with me, not knowing if I could find them so early in the morning. I then went outside to do a weather check…

…OK, I broke a cardinal rule of “nothing new on race day.” I wore my new Flyers fitted top (however, I have 2 other tanks of the same style, so I knew it’d be no problem…however, it seemed a little too chilly to wear the running skirt I wanted (as the material was a little too thin) so I chose my brand-new black RollerGirl skirt. However, as it turned out, the ensemble could not have worked better.

Around 6:15, I met up with my Flyer teammate JM at a nearby Starbucks and got my caffeine fix before waiting for our other 3 teammates. After a few minutes, teammates MD, NH and UH showed up and we all started walking to where the buses were that would take us to the start line in Golden Gate Park. I have to say, the whole process went smoothly. There wasn’t much of a wait for the buses, and once we got on, the seats were relatively comfortable, there was a restroom on the bus (obviously these guys took a cue from the Flyers when it came to traveling in style!)

We arrived to the start area in plenty of time, though the restroom lines were quite long. Was ok, we all just chatted, made other final race preps, tried to stay warm (the weather was cool, misty and cloudy…which I knew would make for absolutely perfect race weather!!) took camera-phone pics…finally, checked our stuff and headed for the start. Both halfs and the full marathon had wave starts-we all started in the 2nd wave, which would be 5 minutes after the first. The start had very little fanfare…didnt even hear a starting horn, all of a sudden, there were people moving forward and its like “oh crap, we’re actually starting!!”

The first mile was a combination of adrenaline, a slightly downhill start, and “SexyBack” on the iPod. 🙂 I was warned about the hills, and sure enough, the next coupla miles humbled me a bit.

Despite the hills, Golden Gate Park is a very pretty place to run…actually reminded me a little bit more of running Prospect Park in the Brooklyn Half (as opposed to my home base, Central Park.)

One very minor complaint about the half-starting with mile 3.9 for the half, we didn’t have our own mile markers…we had to share with the full (they had regular mile markers, ours were on the .9 mile.) As you can see above, it sorta messed my split capturing up a bit, but it was a little tougher to calculate pace…which might have been a good thing, I could just concentrate on enjoying the race and obsessing less about pace.

Anyway, after about 6 miles of hills in the park, I was ready to get out onto the streets…as nice as the park was, the streets were the best way to see the city!! Mile 7 went through Haight-Ashbury, which was actually my favorite part of the race…was the most lively and festive part to me. And oh yeah, some more favorable terrain. The next mile had an uber-steep downhill…I was so waiting for my quads to rebel, but everything seemed to be working fine still!! Was really enjoying this course.

The next few miles were a little more industrial (not to mention the last killer hill in mile 9…man, I thought we had enough already!!) Even though I had taken in gel, sports drink, etc…I did feel myself fading quite a bit in the late miles…could have been as a result of poor pacing. I felt, in a way, like I did in NYC when trying for sub-4…except this case, I had a shot at sub-1:50, which I wasn’t sure was possible with the terrain of the course. Once I spotted AT&T Park (where I was gonna go later in the day!), I knew there was only a little over a mile to go and tried as hard as I could to step it up. The final stretch, along the Embarcadero, with views of the water, was very nice and the cheering crowds at the end helped motivate me to a strong finish. Yeah!!

Afterwards, got my medal, finisher picture, food and drink (they were much more generous with the drink than the food) and went to claim my bag (this needs work for next year too-not a lot of rhyme or reason when the bags were lined up.)

Great race!! This confirms 2 things I suspected…

1-The half really is my best distance-it’s the one that when I’m trying, I’m the most consistent with. (And was thrilled with this time, given the tough terrain…makes me wonder what I’m capable of with a little less hills)

2-I’m really burned out on racing in Central Park, and a change in scenery was very necessary to get the fire back.

I would definitely do this race again in the future. I would love to do the second half again…or maybe try out the tougher first half? That 5:30 start time is a little tough to swallow though…

oh the hills!

oh the hills!
Originally uploaded by nyflygirl76.

Central Park has nothing on the SF hills…but still finished in 1:49, so i’m happy…

changed the name, ain’t the same

believe me, I do respect the fact that the sponsors are quite helpful in making these races happen. But the name change from the “Dash and Splash” to the Naples-New York Park to Park 10K…I dunno, kinda changed the tone a little bit (and I think some people did not catch the pool party afterwards.)

So morning of, still warm but not as bad as the last coupla races I did. I know I didn’t have my “A” game on that day, between only 4 hours sleep and quite a few drinks the night before…

My splits:

8:07 (some idiot crossed the road right in front of me)
8:10 (through the west side hills)
8:00 (down the west side)
8:23 (around the bottom of the park…slowed for water here, it was getting hot!)
8:21 (Trakmaniak was taking pics at the bottom of Cat Hill)
7:56 (another teammate was taking pics by Engineers Gate, but got another back view of me)
1:37 (sprinting to the end, someone saw my clenched fists and told me to open them up…dunno if that helped, but thanks!)

Final time-50:34, 8:09 pace.

You know, I wonder if 10ks are really my distance anymore…I used to like them, but this race I had 2 thoughts: “I wish this was a 5K” (so I can blast it and get it over with) and “I wish this was a half-marathon” (so I can slow down a little!) This definitely wasn’t my best race effort, but if I can maintain this pace for an upcoming half I’d be happy…

The pool part afterwards was quite low-key…only 3 other Flyers besides me showed up, and none of the guys-so looks like a certain pic couldn’t be re-created. Was actually fine with me, as I just wanted to take a quick dip, lay out in the sun to dry off, then head to Urban Athletics to pick up my new fitted Flyers top…don’t it look nice?

And as you can tell from the pictures, I tried out my new MarathonGirl COOLair skirt…worked like a charm!! Was very comfortable, felt like wearing nothing…and a certain shot that our photographer got put my mind at ease, it wasnt too revealing in the back. (And as one of my male teammates who passed me in mile 4 said “I probably would have posted a time that was faster by a minute or so had you not lined up ahead of me…” thanks 🙂 )

My next Central Park race will be next month’s (thankfully non-crowded) Club Champs…where I’m sure I’ll be seeing a lot of you bloggers 🙂 In the meantime, San Francisco, here I come!!

missing: that extra gear

This past Sunday’s WABC Fight Against Prostate Cancer 5-miler…my 5-mile PR was here 3 years ago, once again, I didn’t even come close. Oh, I can blame a lot of things. The heat, the crowd, tired legs…but reality is, I just wasn’t able to kick it into that extra gear.

Mile-by-mile breakdown…

8:01 (another clusterfuck start…I was lined up by the 6 minute marker and even then I was still passing people who had less business than I did lining up that close)
7:58 (they finally got that mile marker right…haha. Saw a Flyers cheering contingent on the transverse.)
8:33 (sneaky incline mile. Saw Trakmaniak taking pics but he missed me.)
8:07 (damn it’s getting hot…)
8:05 (I still hate that hill at the finish…no matter how many times I run up it!)

Overall 40:44, 8:08 pace.

To explain-I’m really not upset about this race. And before anyone says it-I know I am lucky to be able to race (especially since too many people I know are on the DL.) But I look back at my races from 2004 and compare them to now…I mean, if I was able to average 7:45s for 5 miles in 75 degree weather, why can’t I do that again? Looks like my racing style has changed…I used to go out quite aggressive at the start, now I’m a little more conservative. Not sure if being injured forced that change, or something else…but seriously, I feel like I am missing that little something extra, to kick it into that extra gear on race day. And it seems like all the speedwork in the world isn’t gonna bring it back…

Or-I really, really think I’m burnt out on racing in Central Park. How many times have we done park loops? Not surprising, my best race experience so far this year was the Wall Street Run. Coincidence? I think not…

Well racing-wise…looks like I am only gonna frequent Central Park for the Dash and Splash (I can’t ever think of it as anything else, and yes that is me in the picture on the front of NYRR’s website)-only for pool access afterwards-will be a game day decision as to whether or not I race it…and the Club Champs…that one is a must-do for me. Do have a coupla halfs on the tentative schedule…both outside of Central Park, thankfully.

In another note-I wore my MarathonGirl skirt for the first time in a race, and it won’t be the last time. It felt much more comfortable than I thought it would!! I think I may need to get another in that style or similar…I liked not having to mess with shorts! (yes guys-I’ll post an action pic if Brightroom got one…unfortunately a certain someone missed me in the crowd :-p )

back in black-the long need for speed 2007 report!!

Well here goes!!

As I had mentioned previously-last year’s Need For Speed relay was such a hit with the Flyers, that there were 3 teams formed for this year!! 1 was “competitive” and was looking to score big. The other 2 were fun teams. I was originally on the White team, captained by the same one as last year…til the week before, the Black team was 2 people down due to injuries and called on someone from our team to come over…so much to the dismay of the White team captain, I stepped up to the plate (I felt bad letting him down, but I am glad I wound up on the team I did.)

So around 6:45 on Sunday morning, I meet up with the team van over on the west side. You will notice here-the meetup time was 2 hours later than last year!! Part of that was because this year, a wave start was instituted…so instead of a 7:30 start, our team actually had an 8:30 start (next-to-last wave…based on predicted times, fastest teams start last) So even though I brought a pillow to nap in the van, I didn’t need it.

We made it to Bear Mountain without incident and saw the other 2 Flyer teams, preparing for battle. 8:15 came and went, which meant the 1st Flyer team (White) was off. We were up in 15 minutes…unfortunately, we had to get the van outta there before that wave started, so we couldn’t see our leg 1 runner, JW, start. The announcer described the first leg and me and DM were hysterical laughing about the fact that this leg included the “Goat Trail.” On our way to the first exchange, we stopped to cheer on other runners. We saw JM who was running the 1st leg for the White team, running well. Then we saw JW, who looked pretty damn good as well!! We then drove to the exchange area…through quite a few hills and thought “oh shit, he actually has to run up all of these?”

We got to the exchange area and the Leg 2 runners-RB for our team, Trakmaniak for the Red team, prepped for battle. Trakmaniak was caught on film with a game face like I’ve never seen before. Anyway, JW came in, and probably not even 5 minutes later, PD came in for the Red team. On the way to the next exchange area (in addition to laughing about “Mount Airy Road”…due to a certain TV jingle,) we were speculating as to whether RB was gonna run the “leg ‘o shame”-meaning he’d be passed by the Red team. That was the case, as Trakmaniak came flying in to the exchange area first (and his words about this leg-“harder than a marathon!”) RB came in and sent BS on his way to run leg 3. And RB commented on some chick in his leg…who passed him near the end and commented snidely “Next time don’t go out too fast.” (What-ever.) But what concerned us the most was that rumor had it that several people-including the other JW from the White team had gotten lost.

And speaking of getting lost, those driving directions sucked!! We had to turn around so many times. First off GW was navigating, but then I made the executive decision to take over for a coupla legs. And GW was anxious about us getting to the next exchange area in time…he had the 2.9 mile leg 4, and needed to warm up. Well, we got there-and thankfully we saw that White Team JW did find his way home and was safe and sound. BS did a great job on leg 3, and handed off to GW…who I don’t think was looking forward to that big-ass hill at the beginning!!

Now GW is a speedy one-especially with short distances, so we knew that time was very limited to get to the next transition area!! We just barely made it…I think it was maybe a 2-minute difference between the time we got there, and GW made it in and sent DG off to run leg 5. On the way to the next exchange, we passed both DG, who was running very well, and DL from the Red team…and looked like DG was gaining on him!! (And DL beat Lance in the marathon!!…but he was feeling under the weather this day.)

Got to the next exchange area and DG finished strongly and handed the chip bracelet off to our captain, SW. Looked like she had quite the interesting leg to run…wove through a cemetary, among other things!! I started prepping at the next exchange area…I was up next for my team. I found out I would be “against” JD for the Red team on this leg, so less pressure on me (c’mon, the guy runs a sub-40 10k!) I also ran into El Profe from the Rez Dogs…we wished each other luck and he commented he’d probably see me out there and I said “oh I doubt it, I need to take it easy today” (plus he had a 5 minute head start.) They called out the team number, meaning SW was coming in. She handed the chip bracelet to me and I took off on what was to me, a familiar route…

Well at least they sorta corrected the distance-I knew this leg was more than 4.7 miles last year, this year they had it at 5.1 miles. I was taking it easy, my legs were quite tired…quite a few people passed me and I just let them go. Though my legs loved the parts of the trail that were on dirt (as opposed to being paved.) Thankfully this year there was a water stop on this leg, right where we exited the trail (about 3.5 miles in.) Though the day was cool and cloudy, it had warmed up by my leg, so the water was very welcome. By the time we had turned onto the last straightaway, I was ready for it to be over, so I picked up the pace a little bit. And then, I started picking off runners…including a couple who passed me early on (but I was classier than a certain lady…I said “Good job” instead!) Near the very end of the route, I saw the back of a Rez Dog shirt…I had caught up to El Profe and it was a dead heat between the 2 of us to the end of our leg!! In the end, I guess fresher legs prevail as he outkicked me, but at least it helped bring me in strong!! I handed off to GW, who was running a second short leg.

Why does it seem like we get the most lost on the short legs, when we have less time to waste? Yeah, we knew it was going to be very close again, especially since we saw GW out on the course. We just barely made it in time…probably less than 5 minutes before he came in and handed off to DM to run the final leg!! And some drama took place on this leg…apparently a cop was not letting runners go and said they “had to be patient…” and GW crossed I guess a little too soon and the cop yelled “I got your number-you’re disqualified!” Sheesh. The funny thing was-everyone thought if anyone would get us DQ’ed, it would be me (good thing I got all cursing out in the van and not during my leg!!) On the way to the van, we saw a little playground and snapped a couple pics of us acting like children 🙂

Time to hurry to the finish line!! We maneuvered our way there, parked in the free parking garage, and rushed to the finish line to cheer DM in!! We saw that the Red team had already finished, and pretty highly overall!! Not too long after, DM came around the corner, and crossed the finish line for our team…net time a little over 7 hours!! As the anchor leg person, she got to wear the finishing “sash”…all Miss America-esque. :-p We got our goody bags, and some food and more importantly, beer!! The White team came in a little while later and joined the party. Soon, the results were up-the Black team did pretty damn good-12th overall, 6th in our division!! (and thankfully, no DQs!) But the Red team did what they set out to do-4th overall, 2nd in their division (meaning 1st, since the real 1st-place team in their division was one of the top 3 teams overall.)

We stuck around to see the Red team accept their medals, then we hit the road. We made it back to the city, thankfully without too much horrendous traffic. After the van dropped us off on 86th and Broadway, me, DM, BS and JW made an impulse decision to grab a beer at The Parlour and tell war stories from the day. Good times.

Once again, another fun day (I am still laughing about our antics,) and I can’t wait to do this relay again next year!!

need for speed 2007-the short version

Another year, another great time!!

The Flyers entered 3 teams in this year’s Need For Speed Relay…one competitive (the Red team) and 2 “fun” teams (the White and Black teams) I was originally on the White team…but due to the Black team having a couple members drop due to injury the week before, I offered to switch and help them out. Great decision-I really had a blast with these guys. And we did pretty damn good too…12th overall team, 6th in our (co-ed) division. Best of both worlds, huh?

Congrats to the Red Flyer team-4th overall and first co-ed team!! (Fellow Flyer blogger Trakmaniak was a part of that one…)

And also congrats to the White Flyer team on a great effort…next time, the peeps marking leg 2 best not be drunk while doing so!!

More to come!!

the curse of the odd year

After this 4th time that I have run the NY Mini 10K, I have come to one conclusion at least when it comes to the weather:

Even year (2004, 2006)-good
Odd year (2005, 2007)-bad

Yep-just as feared, this morning’s weather was a repeat of 2005. The results and execution, thankfully not.

Well, when I jogged a mile to the start as a warm-up (and saw fellow blogger Brooklyn en route), I knew this could make for a tough day-was already hot and humid. I went to drop off my bag (and saw fellow blogger Chelly and chatted for a coupla minutes) and found some other Flyers and we headed to 66th/CPW, which was where the local elites were meeting. Uptown Girl and Sempre Libera soon joined us after their warm-up. We all got walked over to the start around 8:45-once again, awesome starting position. The usual speeches and fanfare-then we were off!!

Mile 1 (7:40)-nice, wide-open mile (with some male Flyer support)…however, this kinda signaled that it was gonna be a tough day, as this was the slowest I have ever run this mile.
Mile 2 (8:00)-entered the park and saw a Reservoir Dog cheering section and some other Flyers…it helped a little bit, but by the end of this mile I was thinking “I wish this was over.”
Mile 3 (8:36)-first really hilly mile…and I slowed a little bit to get some water/Gatorade-I really, really needed it.
Mile 4 (8:32)-up the last Harlem Hill and hit 5K in 25:16…knew by then sub-8 pace was out, and decided not to try and kill myself for sub-50 either. Just finish without walking and without a huge positive split like in ’05. This mile is always a bitch, but I just plugged away. Flyer GW was taking pictures near Engineer’s Gate and jokingly yelled at me to save myself for Need For Speed tomorrow.
Mile 5 (8:11)-worst was over, all downhill from here!! Spotted Trakmaniak taking pictures and he gave me a much-needed cheer. In addition, the Flyers male contingent made another appearance at 72nd St…much better than last year!! Luv ya guys 🙂
Mile 6 (8:13)-was really, really hurting here…a sidestitch decided to sneak up on me during this mile. Was so, so tempted to slow to a walk but gutted it out, and just tried breathing as deep as possible. Boy, was I relieved to see the “800m to go” sign.
Last 1.2 (1:39)-another cheering Rez Dog contingent around here was just what I needed to pick it up and finish strong…in addition, I had just passed a CPTC runner and wanted to hold her off, and also I knew I had to haul ass if I wanted to make it under 51. I thought it’d never get there (the start and finish were moved up a coupla blocks this year!!) but I reached the finish line, and the announcer called out a New York Flyer finish 🙂

So-my final result was 50:51, 8:12 pace (25:16/25:35 5K splits.) Not my best, but a good effort for the conditions, and a much, much more even race than the ’05 fiasco. So even though the legs weren’t so tough, the mind was tougher than I thought… (oh and even though I wouldn’t recommend drinking half a bottle of Riesling the night before a race, it didn’t seem to hurt my performance. And it was worth it, anyway.)

Afterwards, I got my obligatory red rose and finishers medal, said hi to blogger Brooklyn again, told the guy who was spraying everyone with a fire hose that he ruled, exchanged “ohmigod this sucked” stories with everyone, posed for pictures, and eventually had brunch with one very cool teammate. (and I also got quite a few complements on my makeshift fitted Flyers top-just pinned a Flyer patch to both the front and back of this top in black-looked very cool.)

Just in-the NYRR folks caught me (albeit briefly) on video!! yay. (another blogger got caught on video too…)

And tomorrow, a nice 5.1 mile easy run on tap-I got the same leg as last year and I know it’s a perfect one to recover from today!! Not to mention a fun day with some very cool people 🙂

now playing: “read my mind” ~ the killers

you can always go downtown

(post title stolen from those Visa TV spots)

Anyway, last nite was my first race outside Central Park in awhile!! As I had mentioned before, our company was shut out of this year’s Corporate Challenge, so I suggested we do the Wall Street Run instead. Figure it’d be a nice change too…away from the Central Park crowds, and no team t-shirts this year (so we could wear whatever we wanted instead of heavy cotton!)

We had 13 people sign up, most of them planning on walking the thing. So when the company captain said that we should probably get there by 6:10 for a 6:30 start, I knew I had to do my own thing 🙂 And my office is right near the West Side Highway bike path, and it’s 2 miles to the race start…and I needed to do a warm-up anyway, so I just ran down there after work-much more direct than taking the subway too!! I had told my colleagues that I’d be by the 7 minute pace marker…but I saw people standing nearby who didn’t look like they’d be running hard, not to mention someone saying “Runners are up in the front…joggers are around here…walkers are the rest.” Decision: save myself and move up. So I did. And we waited for the race start…was delayed a few minutes since they couldn’t seem to close off West Street…finally we were off!!

Took Mile 1 hard…was a tiny bit hilly, but still nothing compared to Central Park…ran past ground zero and the WTC PATH terminal. I was pleased to see my mile 1 split of 7:34-this could be great if I can keep it up…

Mile 2 was through more twisty, turny, potholed streets…was still running pretty hard but trying to keep an eye on the road too, make sure I didn’t wipe out!! That mile was 7:36…not bad, not bad!! Would have been happy with breaking 24, but looks like sub-23 may be on the horizon…

Mile 3-around the very bottom of Manhattan, and back up towards the World Financial Center. I tried to pick up the pace a little here. The last little bit of the race is on the West Side Esplanade by the Hudson River…nice little final straightaway. Though I was surprised when I looked down at my watch when the split read about 6:30 and I couldn’t see the finish line…anyway, I gave it all I had and this mile was 7:40. (So I think this mile was a tiny bit long…)

Final time-22:50, 7:36 pace (assuming it was truly 3 miles…I don’t think it was a true 5K, but definitely longer than 3 miles.) And of the 13 that signed up from my company…only 3, including me had our times captured by the chip…and once again, I was first 🙂

Afterwards, there was a nice little “after-party” in the World Financial Center…caught up with a few Flyer teammates…before heading to Urban Athletics to drop some more $$ on running clothes on sale (and knocking back a Corona-gotta love them for serving good stuff.) Then I headed to an after-party with some Rez Dogs and Harriers…at Chevy’s right across from the financial center. It was for Merrill Lynch, but I got in because…well, a sweet smile to the doorman works every time 😉 I didn’t plan to stay too long…but time flies when you’re knocking back beers like water, before I knew it, it was past midnight!! Despite this morning’s hangover, it was fun…I really needed a good night like that.

And as for the race, I’m definitely happy with it-was nice to get out of Central Park, and you know what, short races really aren’t as bad as I remember-as long as they don’t have monster hills and are outside of Central Park!! Maybe I was burned out a little bit by having most of my racing there…so some NJ races may be on the horizon later this year. We shall see!

now playing: “number 1” ~ goldfrapp

almost bailed. glad i didn’t.

even though i picked up my number and loverly tech-y shirt, i knew that the Healthy Kidney 10K was gonna be a game-day decision, due to both predicted rain in the forecast and a cold that hit me this past week.

race morning…even though the Weather Channel said current rain, I peeked outside…wasn’t doing anything except drizzling…and the fresh air felt invigorating…what the hell, i’ll do it. but performance-wise, not expecting anything great and prepared to drop out if need be.

expecting a massive crowd (and seeing the rec lane taped off with orange tape and cones), i knew that I better be lined up early, so I was lined up by 8:30 (which meant forgoing a full warm-up.) i saw a new Flyer lined up near me and we chatted while waiting for the start. Finally after the speeches, the elite male athlete intros, and the speeches, we were off. And here was how it netted out:

Mile 1-8:15

Mile 2-8:19

Mile 3-8:39

Mile 4-8:50

Mile 5-8:22

Mile 6-8:10

Last .2-1:44

52:19, 8:26 pace (5k splits 26:12/26:07)

Not my best, not my worst. The lingering cold and the lack of a full warm-up prevented me from really giving it my all. But, on the other hand, it’s dress rehearsal for the Mini 10K in 3 weeks…and can’t ever complain about a slight negative split…(at least at the Mini, I can get a better start and a full warm-up then…and the Mini has a slightly easier course in the first half)

Afterwards, a bunch of Flyers hung around for the raffle (they had some pretty nice prizes…wouldn’t have minded winning $250 worth of Tiffany’s bling, amongst other things…) and the awards ceremony…as the course record did fall by 2 seconds that day (good to see Ritz did it, though I was sorta hoping it’d be Mottram, as he came so close twice…)

Next-kick this cold and pray that the weather gods give us ladies a good day in 3 weeks…

(and as my faithful DS-Trainers are now approaching 200 miles…I think it’s due time to start breaking in the new pair in time for the Mini…)

the bracelet

It came with my technical shirt for today’s race. Before I left my apartment this morning, I made an impulse decision to wear it-in honor of my grandfather, who passed away when I was 3 from lung cancer (which was the cause that the Labrecque 4-miler was for.) I felt it would bring inspiration and good karma, and the like.

So, the race. I got there, checked my bag, lined up…maybe once again, a little on the aggressive side, but the races have been such free-for-alls lately (though someone was announcing to walkers to line up at the back-not all of them followed that, as you will see!!) that I know I’d be screwed if I didn’t. Waited through the pre-race speeches, the national anthem, then the starting horn!!

Mile 1 was up Cat Hill, and once again, the start was a complete clusterfuck-I passed quite a few walkers as well!! My mile split was 8:05-which I completely blame on the start slowing me down…

Mile 2 from Engineer’s Gate to the 102nd Street Transverse-bit of a downhill mile, and a little bit clearer-this one was 7:50. Cool!! Maybe sub-32 was possible. But the toughest mile was next…

Mile 3-I completely expected this one to be the slowest, those West Side Hills will always be my weak spot!! I glanced down at the bracelet to inspire me to hang in there. This was 8:19-which I completely expected, but at least I did not get the desire to walk as I have before on this mile.

Mile 4-time to get the job done. I was at 24:14 after 3 miles, meaning I’d need to run a 7:45 in order to get under 32 minutes…could I do that?? Another glance at the bracelet to inspire me to pick it up. I took advantage of that long downhill, and the knowledge that there wasn’t that much more to go…after making that final turn onto 72nd and getting within sight of the finish line, I knew that I was going to get my goal-that last mile was 7:40.

Final time-31:54, 7:58 pace.

Afterwards, I found my teammates…we mingled, talked, and a few of us headed to the Boathouse for some coffee and conversation. All in all, a very nice morning.

As for today, it’s a step in the right direction. I don’t feel sore now, which means I probably didn’t leave it all out there…another month of training, I think will be promising for the Kidney 10K and the Mini 10K. Maybe that bracelet was a good luck charm of sorts…may have to be a permanent part of the racing ensemble…

shades of college

yeah, even though i went to a “party school” for college, i rarely partook in the activity of drinking earlier in the day (e.g., “kegs and eggs” around St. Patrick’s Day)…ok, there was ParkFest in the spring…and opening ceremonies for Greek Week…but today kinda felt like a throwback to those college days.

Today was the Coogan’s 5K (I’m too lazy to write out the full name) and as you all know, short races are not my favorite, especially when I have to travel a distance for it (5K’s in NJ were an exception since I stayed at the parentals and could drive instead of rely on public transportation.) BCG was trying to talk me into running and I struck a compromise-only if we front-loaded. It’s 4 miles up Broadway from the west 80s, so why not? We got the “frontloading queen” Runner26 to join us too.

This morning I was like “why the hell am I doing this…” Running up Broadway felt like mountain climbing and my legs were just not getting with the program. Finally we made it up to 168th and Broadway with plenty of time to drop our bags and line up (and just want to add, all 3 of us looked like triplets with our matching black Flyer long-sleeve shirts. I just wish I had decided to wear a white hat too! 🙂 )

The starting horn sounded, somewhat unexpectedly. Part of me really didn’t want to race this thing, but the other part of me was discouraged by the sluggish miles beforehand and just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible (and I didn’t even have my iPod on me!), so I just decided to try and tempo it as I did last week. I can say, there are 2 reasons why this would not be an ideal PR course-course is way too crowded (especially the parts where we are restricted to one side of the street) and monster hills, worse than Central Park. Both those factors slowed me down, though the downhill mile 3 + .1 was welcomed.

Splits according to my watch: 8:55/9:01/8:12/:46-26:54, 8:40 pace (dammit, the jig is up, NYRR fixed the times…)

OK run, I guess…though still missing my motivation to race…

…but not the motivation to partake in the post-run festivities at Coogan’s. The Flyer turnout was quite low and they left on the early side, but I hung out with Uptown Girl, Sempre Libera and a bunch of their other TRD teammates and downed 3 pints of beer (or something close to that) in 2+ hours…a leisurely brunch on the west side later (I was kinda wary of sampling the Coogan’s food), before we knew it, it was 3 pm…a shower and a nap or 2 later, where the hell did the day go?

But I guess I need it every once in awhile. And I may even be convinced to do this one again next year…

no two snowflakes are the same

thank god yesterday’s Snowflake 4-miler did not live up to it’s name, but dayum, it was cold.

I did mean to get there early enough to watch the guys, i swear i did, but it wasn’t the cold that derailed those plans-nope, instead it was damn snooze button. I did get there by 8:30, and cheered on a couple of Flyers that were finishing around that time before I had to chuck my baggage (smart move on NYRR’s part to have separate baggage checks for men and women) and line up. One of our team scorers saw me and pulled me in to line up with her, but when I saw that we were right behind the elite corral, i knew I had no business being there and moved back a little bit until I saw another teammate that is around the same pace as me. With under 10 minutes to go until the start, it was damn cold-in the future, for cold races like this, I am going to bring handwarmers to the start (I didn’t wear gloves because I knew I’d take them off before the halfway point.)

Anyway, Mary Wittenberg kept her usual pre-race speech short and sweet and the women were off. Thankfully, no wave start this time (guess the male/female split start took care of that) but it was still a bottleneck at the very beginning-but once that cleared up, it was fine. My legs and lungs were not feeling an all-out effort today so I made a game-time decision to tempo this one. Hard, but comfortable, and I had the iPod with me so it wasn’t all that bad.

Actual run itself was pretty uneventful-final stats are 33:47, 8:26 pace, splits 8:23/8:14/8:40/8:20.

Content? Yes. Thrilled? No. But at least I did not have to stop a half dozen times to walk like in the Kleinerman 10K. Still a little apprehensive about getting my “race game” back. I think Chelle kinda sums up how I’m feeling about “racing” in the next-to-last paragraph of this post…

Afterwards, a bunch of us (including BCG, R26 and NSA) headed over to Urban Athletics, where they were having a party/sale for the Flyers. I did damage to my credit card with the new black long-sleeve Flyer shirt, and a warm Sugoi top/jacket (50% off, not too shabby) in red. After that was a brunch meeting with the other Flyer captains, a long nap, and a game night that BCG hosted. Unfortunately I had a little too much wine which left me completely useless today.

The snowflakes are coming down now. Here’s hoping my office will have a delayed opening tomorrow…