This race was full of poor decisions and way too much sweat, thanks to 352380% humidity that seems to be sticking around NYC for way too long. But! I was still happy to be out there and able to run, first and foremost.
A longer (~3 mile) warm-up seemed to work well for the last 5K I ran, so I wanted to try the same thing for this one. The race was on Roosevelt Island, which is tricky to get to from Manhattan – you can either take the Tram, the F train, a cab or finagle your way to Queens and over the Roosevelt Island Bridge. I choose option #4 after some Twitter friends helped me figure out just how the heck to get to this mystery bridge.
talk about round-about routes. sheesh. Also this was probably only my third trip to Queens since living in NYC for almost 7 years.
In hindsight, it was probably a little too long a warm-up – about 4.75 miles – and I was completely drenched in sweat upon arriving at the race start. Oops. The good news was that I timed it pretty well and only had to stand around for 10 minutes or so before the (nonexistent) gun went off.
Mile 1: 6:59
I felt surprisingly good for the first mile and just went with it. It’s only 3 miles, I told myself. This is going to be no problem to keep up. Sometimes I think I’ll never learn. By the time mile 1 ticked off reality set in, my brain felt like it was cooking inside my head and legs we all WTF? We are hot and tired and would like to stop now.
Mile 2: 7:44
Yeah. I stopped looking at my Garmin so much and just tried to stick it out. The negative thoughts I hate so much started creeping into my consciousness (this hurts, I may as well slow down. it’s so hot, there’s no way I’m going to PR. WHY AM I DOING THIS AGAIN?). I tried to tell myself that yes, 5Ks are supposed to hurt and feel uncomfortable and it’ll be FINE. It kind of worked for a little while, but I was seriously slowing down.
Mile 3 and change: 8:03
Ugh. This mile was ugly and I freely admit to giving up. I stopped the “racing” mentality and switched to the “just get through it” outlook, which is pretty negative in itself. A girl with a sparkly skirt and a girl listening to music (two things I dislike a lot during races) passed me, and I could not for the life of me catch up. I know a lot of runners who can switch it into a different gear and blow by these “targets” at the end of races, but I just didn’t have it this time.
Unofficial time: 24:09, 7:36/mile
Not even close to a PR, but it is what it is. I’m not going to lie and say I meant to run the race “easy” – I definitely wanted to race the shit out of it (as evidenced by mile 1). But, I also have to take the conditions, my current fitness level and stupid racing decisions into account. After thinking about it for a bit, I’m actually not that disappointed and am choosing to look at it as a fairly decent tempo effort.
The NYCRUNS peeps gave out popsicles at the end of the race and they were probably the best thing I have ever tasted in all of life. I slurped mine down on the way to the Tram and back to Manhattan, because there was no way in hell I was going to run all the way back again. I did run about a mile back to my apartment from 59th street, which was a perfect cooldown and put me at about 9 miles for the day.
So overall, the race wasn’t OMG amazing or even slightly awesome, but definitely a step in the right direction. And a day that involves running and racing is usually a pretty good day, am I right?
rooftop fireworks in the best city in the world with some of my favorite people <3
Did you race on the fourth? How’d it go? Watch the fireworks?