Friday.

What better way to plan for a fast 10k than to go out to a cabaret the night before?

One of my athlete’s and now long time friend, Nelson Aspen, was having a performance at the Green Room 42 at 7PM and I wouldn’t miss it. I had an extra ticket and had offered it up to his friend Vicki who had just landed from LA. Her and I grabbed a drink and headed into the show.

His performance, as always, did not disappoint! After the show we all met up in the hotel bar for an after party. I got to meet the ABC7 News Team who had attended. I was sad to see that Amy (Freeze) whom I already know as she is a runner didn’t make it.

I was home by 9 to make myself a cozy oil and garlic pasta dinner to fuel up for the race. Goodnight Moon.

Saturday.

I was up at 7 and out the door by 7:30 for an easy jaunt down to the start in south east corner of The Park.

I did not run into any friends in my Corral and so just did my thing and bopped around to my music. Soon enough the gun went off and we were cruising.

Mile 1 we were in a fairly tight pack and I was analyzing my body. Did I feel loose? Yes. Any pain? No. Did I feel fast? I did. My pace clicked off at a 6:12.

Mile 2 I decided to pick it up a bit and start having fun, passing people and pushing the pain threshold. I couldn’t help but notice how gorgeous it was out. My pace clicked off at a 5:57. Mile 3 I slowed to a 6:12 as we had to tackle the notorious Harlem Hill.

By now I was running in a flying V formation with 2 other guys. One was named ‘Johnny’ who had quite a few local friends yelling hi. I was a bit jealous… where were my peeps today!? We were doing a really solid job of working together as a pack. After we crested Harlem Hill I moved ahead of them and lead us for the next mile while they tucked in behind me. Mile 4 was a 6:18, which I wasn’t pleased by.

With two to go I pushed it hard again. I lost my guys and was pretty much running solo coming into the lower half of The Park. Mile 5… 6:02. I told myself ‘Just hang on a bit longer.’ as my body was burning up.

Then up ahead, I saw my friend Emily! She’s a super speedy runner friend that I had trained with and got to know earlier in the summer as we had similar paces. She is aiming to break 3 in NYC in 2 weeks and I think she’s got it covered. She has also recently asked me to pace her in the race which I’m super excited about and very honored to do! Anyway, I cruised up along side of her and we chatted for a hot second before I pushed on.

I blasted up 72nd and finished in 37:51 (Mile 6 was a 5:59).

I was really happy with my performance. It wasn’t a PR but one of my top 3 finishes in a 10k and mind you, those other top finishes were in my younger days!

On Heart Rate.

An interesting thing I noticed (for the first time ever) when analyzing my HR was that it didn’t spike until Mile 2! Totally wild right. My engine needed to warm up?

Saturday Post Race.

After cleaning up after the race I headed over to Third Avenue Ale house with my book to grab some lunch. It’s always super chill and the bartender Chloe is a big reader too so we can chat books.

That night I travelled off the island all the way to Brooklyn to my cousin Morgan’s apartment warming party.

It chalked up to a pretty dope Saturday.