NYRR Japan Day 4-mile race
Two lessons learned this weekend:
1. If there’s an announcement that the President and First Lady are coming into New York City to see a Broadway show, and your spouse says, “hey, tickets are still available, let’s go!”, ignore her. It was an absolute madhouse in Times Square last night — security to get on to 44th Street to get to the Belasco was crazy, the show started an hour late, no one was allowed to even walk outside at intermission, and as it turned out the First Couple were in the back of the orchestra while we were in the mezzanine so we couldn’t see them anyway. And bus traffic up 6th Avenue was still being re-routed when the show let out at 11:30 at night, so we didn’t get home until after midnight. The show was good but very involved, and I didn’t have the mental stamina to keep up with it that late.
2. If there’s a race that starts at 8 am on a Sunday at the north end of Central Park, and you’re dependent on public transportation to get there, leave home at least a half-hour earlier than you think you need.
A whole bunch of races this year have begun from 67th Street on the East Side at 9 am. I’ve been spoiled. Today I had to face the insanity of the re-routed weekend subway schedule, which left me waiting in the catacombs of the Columbus Circle subway station for 20 minutes for an uptown “A” train (which replaced the “C” this weekend as the local - the “D” was still express - apparently the “B” doesn’t run? Christ, the subways on the weekends are just awful). Originally my plan was to take the bus up Central Park West, but no buses were in sight when I got outside so I took what I thought would be the more reliable route, the subway. I didn’t have a watch but I passed the CNN clock on the way there, so I knew I got down into the subway at about 7:25 - 7:30. After about ten minutes I asked someone what time it was, and she said “7:30”. I then could read someone else’s watch who was sitting and waiting, and his watch said “7:40”. When the A train finally arrived, the guy sitting across from me had a watch the size of a medium-build schnauzer, which clearly said “7:50”. Really, I had no friggin’ clue what time it was, so the 59 -> 72 -> 81 -> 89 -> 96 -> 103 crawl up Central Park West made me anxious. There were maybe three or four other runner-looking-type people on the train, too, so at least there would be other stragglers.
When we arrived at 103rd Street I bolted out the exit, and sprinted across CPW and into the Park. Past the Pond, up the hill, got myself kinda out of breath, and I found… a whole bunch of other runners still warming up on the West Drive, away from the start. Clearly it wasn’t that late. However, when I got to the baggage area the marshals were telling everyone to hurry up to the start, that we had four minutes. At that point I walked over, caught my breath, took my spot with the green-bib people, and the “race”* was on. Loved the women in traditional Japanese costume playing klezmer at the start! I was waiting for some cheesy 80s pump-you-up music, and the music over the loudspeakers was clearly a “WTF” sort of thing, but when when I passed through the start and saw the women on stage I appreciated the novelty of it.
* - It’s deceiving to call these events “races”. A “race” assumes that this is a competition where people have a chance to win, which it is for maybe 3% of the runners due to all of the age categories and whatnot. This was not a race; it was an organized, timed run with prizes. Yesterday’s Brooklyn Half took most of the serious city-based runners out of today’s run, and at best the other 97% who have zero chance at a prize are competing against ourselves. And honestly, today, I wasn’t even doing that — I was dog tired after a 64-mile bike ride up to Rockland yesterday, followed by my Very Special, Very Late Evening With Barack And Michelle (TM), so this was purely an exhibition-level effort. Think NFL pre-season, week 4. I tried harder during the Wall Street Run, and that was maybe a step above “jailbreak” in organization.
I did enjoy taking on the same basic Central Park course from a different perspective (getting the rolling hills over with in Mile 1, Missy cheering me on at the midway point instead of the finish, Cat Hill in Mile 3), but my total time of 34:42 (8:40/mile pace) is a digression from my last couple of NYRR runs. I’m not terribly concerned, though, as I know that my general runs are getting longer and the combination of running and biking is continually improving my health and stamina. I picked up my pace for only maybe the last third of a mile, on the small incline back to the 102nd Street transverse, and finished feeling a little bit winded but not overwhelmed. My calves are still sore from the biking, though.
The only other notable thing was the humidity. I sweat a lot this morning, and I’m not looking forward to running in the heat in the middle of the summer. Never been a fan of carrying anything on a run, especially not a bottle of water, so we’ll see how that goes as we get deeper into June and July.
So the next few weeks will finish off Phase 1 of my marathon adventure. I’m a cycling ride marshal (yay!) at next week’s Mini 10-K to fulfill my volunteer requirement, followed by a participant in the Father’s Day 5 miler, taking me to the coveted 2009 “9+1” for NYCM2010 automatic qualification. I’ll dedicate most of my summer exercise time more to biking to running, if only because I enjoy it more (by a lot). Then the real marathon work begins: half-marathon by April, and the full in November. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it but I’ll be damned if I’m going to walk away easily from this challenge.
2 years ago