Genine's class with Tiffany was canceled for Saturday morning so she went into the city with me this morning. Wahoo!
We left the house about 7AM. We were on central park west by 8AM. We looked for parking until 8:40AM! Parking in a lot was going to cost at least $30. I really didn't feel like doing that. You could park on 72nd street starting at 9AM. So at 8:40ish Genine said she would sit with the car until it was legal to park there and then head over. So I jog over towards the start. I was thankful the portajohns didn't have pre-triathlon size lines. Then I headed to the start line, that's when I realized that this was going to be a slow run. I was directed to file in where you can. Well I was in the 11 minute mile corral which was just in front of the walkers. Only there wasn't really anyone in the walker corral. I call Genine to tell her she's not going to miss much by waiting with the car. There are 1000's of runners ahead of me, I'm not going to be able to race this.
So I've got my cell with me. I don't typically have anything with me when I run. So what do I do with it now? I decide my best solution is to tuck in into my sleeve along my forearm and hope for the best.
The starting horn goes off. People cheer. We stand and wait. And wait... eventually we shuffle.. then wait. I should have looked to see how closely to 9AM the horn went off. I got to the start line at 9:20. At which point I hear the announcer say there are over 10,000 runners. I'm fairly certain I'm in the last 1000 to cross the start line. If they started the race right at 9AM, the winner finished 20 seconds after I crossed the starting line.
Fortunately I didn't come into this race with high hopes of putting up a good time. Although the weather couldn't be any more perfect for a good run. 40 degrees and sunny.
The good news is I remembered to wear my polar watch today. Bad news is the Battery in my HR Strap died on me before I got to the start line. (not a big deal). So I kept track of my mile splits along the way.
Mile 1: 8:58 LOL! I think to myself, maybe it will open up later in the race. (really?)
Mile 2: 7:53 There was a decent stretch where I ran tight to the curb and up on the grass when necessary.
Mile 3: 8:39 I think this is because of a bottle neck in the course. It got tight and you couldn't bob and weave.
Mile 4: 7:32 This is because people were on a down hill and people were yelling "you're almost there!" to them. I'm not sure all those people considered a half mile to go as "almost there" as quite a few of them would be pushing hard and then slow to a walk.
I'll admit that I also stopped my watch before crossing the finish line. In my defense it was because I couldn't get to the finish line. I was at a complete stop about 15 yards from the finishing gate.
My watch time was 33:02.
I walk over the finish. Pull my phone out and call Genine. I ask where she is. She says she's just in front of the finish line and she's upset that she didn't even see me. Then my phone died. Have I ever mentioned how much I sweat? Fortunately she had given me a clue as to where she was before that happened.
My official race time 33:21. 8:20 pace.
Overall 2256, Gender 1657, Age 329
I didn't bother to see out of how many people for each category. It doesn't matter. It was a nice day to run in central park and raise money for Haiti. All the entry fee money was donated. So I guess they raised over $400,000. I'm sure it was much more than this with the extra donations.
Hopefully they don't look at this race result to place me into corrals in future races.
My biggest concern? I hope that I don't have this much trouble finding parking for future races.
Here is a picture of me after the race.
Update: phone dried out and is working again. Whew!
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