- Date: Saturday, June 11, 2011
- Start: 8:00am
- Location: Central Park. Start on Central Park West, above Columbus Circle heading north. Enter the park at 90th and follow the loop clockwise to the finish at 67th on the west side.
- Conditions: Ugh. Humidity City. Cloudy, 66 degrees. Humidity? 95%. Thank god the sun wasn’t out!
- Pre-Race:
- Well, things didn’t go as planned the night before. I had anticipated a quiet afternoon/evening at home so I could rest, watch a movie, and get to bed early after a tiring week. Instead, I went to the grand opening of my new neighborhood beer garden. And had pints of half the draft menu — which included, in case you were wondering, a Stella, a Six Point Sweet Action, an Allagash White, and a Radeberger Pilsner.
- Came home and downed a bowl of pasta and a Clif bar and went to sleep (early, at least) but without setting my alarm. Hm.
- Luckily, I wake up insanely early all the time so I hopped out of bed at 5 ready to roll. We do our grocery shopping on Sautrdays here, so Saturday morning the pickins are lean. I wound up having a crappy pre-race breakfast of water and a handful of little sugared wheat puffs.
Yes, seriously.
- Race time:
- I was in the green corral, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to the start of a race (major benefit to not having men in it). I think I crossed the start only about a minute after the horn.
- I went up CPW a bit on the fast side. I was at about 8:00 at the first mile which made me a little nervous knowing that I don’t usually run well in the humidity and that there were quite a few hills approaching.
- Mile 2-3 was by far my slowest. I intentionally slowed down a bit and got jammed up a bit at the water station. Ugh. And for the record, at this point I felt like I had already sweat like 3 pounds off of me.
- Mile 4-5 were meh. The hills were pretty much over and I just wanted the race to be over too. I settled into a pace that I felt I could keep for the rest of the race.
- Mile 5-6.2 I had gas left in my tank to push it to the end. And that was okay for me. I couldn’t even pick it up when it was 800m left… 400m left…
- The Finish: I felt like I was going to barf. (Didn’t, in case you were wondering). Felt pretty awful, in fact. But really happy it was over.
- Official Time:
- Overall:
- It wasn’t my best 10k, but it certainly wasn’t my worst. I really can’t believe that I was actually less than a minute off of my PR for the distance. Pace wasn’t so bad at all, and I really can’t complain! There may be hope for me after all with this humid summer running!
CONGRATS to all the women who ran the Mini-10k! And, of course, anyone who raced today or will tomorrow. What are your running plans for the weekend? AND, have you ever been surprised by your performance in a race?
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Have you checked out my running book club? Here’s my review of Personal Record: A Love Affair with Running by Rachel Toor. I’ll be reviewing What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami the first Friday in July, if you want to join in!
