Sunday, June 17, 2012

Race #8

 Name: NYRR New York Mini 10K
Date/Time: Saturday, June 9 at 8am
Location: Central Park
Length: 6.2 miles
Bib Number: 7343 
Official Time: 1:18:57
Average Time per Mile: 12:43 



This race was a woman's only event.  I have only done one other all women's race - the Diva Half Marathon in Long Island - a couple of years ago.  I loved it.  The atmosphere for this race was a lot of fun as well.  There is something about a race being exclusive to women that makes it somehow more exciting.  In addition to the hype of it being women only, the weather was amazing for running!  The official temperature was 69 degrees with 5mph winds.  Perfect!  In fact, the whole race I thought it might start pouring down rain at any moment.  Fortunately, it held off until I crossed the finish line and collected my medal....yes, they gave us medals!!

Pre-race...I really liked the shirts for this race!

Anyway, on to the race itself.  This race began on 61st and Central Park West.  We ran for about a mile and a half before we entered the park.  I really liked this part of the course.  Even though I had some knee/leg pain throughout much of the first mile, I still clocked in pretty close to 11:30.  I was a bit surprised as I hadn't done too much running since the Brooklyn Half a couple of weeks ago.  After that I really needed a bit of a break from running and then work got really busy so I have been swamped.  I did manage to get in a few decent runs the week or so prior to the race, but I wasn't expecting to be too stellar on the course.  Needless to say, I kept it pretty consistent with the first couple of miles.  I started to get warmed up around mile 2 and was feeling pretty good until I hit the 5k marker at 37:55.  I wasn't entirely disappointed in that time, but I just started to feel a little off at that point.  I tried to force my mind to think about something else and not to think about it, but I kept feeling a little faint.  Needless to say, the second half of the race was not too fun.  I couldn't decide if I should walk, stop for a breather, ask for help at the next water station, drink a bunch of Gatorade, or just shake it off.  I ended up just putting one foot in front of the other convincing myself that I would be finished soon and if I still felt bad I could take a visit to the medic tent at the finish line.  My 4th mile was probably somewhere around 14 minutes as I couldn't decide what would be best and was really struggling.  I made my decision at the mile 5 marker to try to finish as strong as possible, but not to completely overdo it.  The last two miles were somewhere between 12 and 13 minutes each which was a feat in itself at that point in time.  As soon as I crossed the finish (and collected my lovely medal!!), I made a beeline for the bagels.  After washing half the bagel down with lots of Gatorade, I started to feel a little less lightheaded and shaky.  They were handing out popsicles as well so I grabbed one of those and got some sugar in my system.  I walked around for a few minutes as it began to sprinkle.  I felt better almost immediately after eating something so I chalked it up to not having enough to eat the night before and morning of the run.  I didn't feel bad for the rest of the day or weekend so I think that must have definitely been it.

Very happy to have 8 races finished!! :)
With this race in the record books, I have just one left to complete my goal of qualifying for the 2013 Marathon.  I've signed up for that one in September when work will be a little bit calmer and hopefully my running schedule will be more in tact.  It is only a 1 mile race so I am looking forward to really doing GREAT on it.  Stay tuned....


Andrea :)

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