After 2 weeks off (and I mean off) from Ironman, this weekend was a swift introducing back to the world of running.
Saturday, Claire threw her 3rd annual Beer Run. It’s an event not to be missed, kind of like a runner holiday party. Here’s the skinny… run to a bar, drink… then run to another bar… drink; rinse and repeat. Sound like fun? It is.
There were 40 of us this time and by the 3rd bar we were all ‘loosey goosey’ making the running between bars that much more interesting. I got to see all of my runner friend’s from the Runner Army minus one or two who couldn’t make it due to religious obligations. As always it was a blast, thank you Claire for organizing!
This made for a good warm up for Sunday’s NYRR sanctioned race.
RACE DAY
I left my apartment with plenty of time to spare and walked over to the Park. There, I ran into Annalise and Lisa (who were also racing). New York really is a small town.
I jumped in my corral and hung around, thinking about what I was going to do. ‘Should I race this thing, or just run it?’ My legs didn’t feel quite lucid yesterday during Beer Run so I was worried that my speed was lacking.
Out of nowhere Sebastian, Robert, Antonio and Helen showed up! Oh, I also got to finally meet Joe G in person! Nice to finally meet you! We all chatted about… you know… running. Gotta say, making running friends the last few years has been really special. The fact that all of us were just hanging out on a Sunday at the Start talking shop is so cool. You not only feel like part of the running community, but of the community in general.
The gun goes off and we set it off, like getting shot out of a canon. It was pretty crowded the first mile as everyone eased into their paces. I hit Mile 1 right around 6 minutes and said to myself “F-it I guess I’m racing this thing.”
Around Mile 2 Robert and Antonio passed me. They were on a sub 30 minute mission and were killing it.
I wasn’t wearing a watch so at Mile 3 I tried some quick math and figured I was running 6:30s or so. Why are numbers so puzzling!
I felt pretty good as far as my legs were concerned. I mean, I was exhausted from running hard, but overall I felt healed from Ironman and was happy. I had been leapfrogging with a gal from Warren Street (Robert, Seb and Antonios team) and at Mile 4 she saw I was fading. She ran along side of me and said “Come on!” This helped tremendously (thank you) and I just focused on keeping my pace steady.
I came in at 30:21 and actually wasn’t concerned with the time at all. Abbe even asked me, moments later, “Was that a PR?” “Naw.” I responded, as I chowed down on a raisin bagel. Sonja actually emailed me later and told me it was. Oops.
| Sex/ Age |
Bib | Overall Place | Age Place |
Finish Time |
Pace/ Mile |
AG % |
| M33 | 131 | 136 | 29 | 30:21 | 6:05 | 71.14% |
There were kids races after and Joe had brought his family to race! Too cute man. Oh, and Robert and Antonio broke 30, congrats guys! Yeah and Seb came in 6th overall with a 26:01. That’s a 5:13 pace, killer!
It was a fantastic weekend for racing. It was so great to see all my running friends! I was also very happy that I had my legs back after the Ironman.