NYRR Al Gordon Snowflake 4 miler

Results can be found here.

We got in from our Friday night IntenSati class in NYC late, after midnight. I got to bed around 1AM. Saturday was a scheduled day off. Thank goodness. My hamstrings and glutes were hurtin'. Genine actually got up and went to Tiffany's IntenSati class at 8AM. I eventually got on the treadmill and walk/jogged to warm up, then stretched a ton. Then rolled out with the stick. (the stick is really a good thing to have around BTW).

We then got ready to head over to Kevin and Lara's in Brooklyn. A nice easy drive, then we turn into the neighborhoods. Whoops, that's right, we just got 12-15 inches of snow the other day. The cars parked in front of all the houses are just packed in by snow plows. We probably should have brought a shovel. It might not matter, we might not find a parking space anyhow! We figure anywhere within' 5 blocks of their place is going to be a miracle. Well we got that miracle. Somebody was actually pulling out just as we were closing in on their space! It can't possible be legal. There must be a hydrant or a driveway. I hop out dig around in the snow to make sure... Wahoo! I think we are good! Only 2 blocks away!
We walk over to their place. Drop our stuff off and head out to dinner. Casa Pepe! A good mexican place just a few blocks away. Had we known, we should have said it was someone's birthday. Two other people were celebrating birthdays and the restaurant would crank up Tequila and pour Tequila straight out of the bottle directly into their mouth. The one woman must have had about 5 or so shots poured in on her first try! Yikes! Anyhow, it was a good dinner and a good visit. How often do you get laughing so hard you are crying?

Sunday morning: Wake up, find "The Stick" and attempt to get the back of my legs loose. There is a definite chance that my hamstrings lock up on me during the run today. Guess we will see.
We take the subway up to the park and walk over to the race site. We dump our boots, sweats and jackets onto Kevin and Lara. There really isn't much time for a warmup run again (5 minutes or so). I just jog up the road a bit and try to get some blood moved to my legs, work on the hamstrings real quick then jump into the very back of the 1st corral. I'm going to have room to run this week!

PreRace video provided by Kevin

The gun goes off and away we go. I realize I didn't remember to eat a GU or anything on the way over, dumb! Anyhow, the biggest hill on the course starts probably less than a quarter mile into the race. I focus on keeping my arms pumping and my breathing under control. I feel like I'm holding my ground within the pack. Once it flattens out I start looking for my "rabbit". I pick someone out but I don't think I gain a step on them the entire first mile, which I finished in 7:20. That falls in the ballpark of where I thought I would be in terms of speed. Breathing is good and everything is under control. Sadly my HR monitor is not picking up again this week.

2nd mile: Where did my rabbit go? Doesn't matter just keep the speed up. There aren't too many people getting by me but I don't feel I'm passing anyone either. This mile seemed fairly flat. I ran mile 2 in 7:12.

3rd mile: This would be the downhill portion of the run. Now people are passing me. Grrr! I am trying to let loose on the downhill but it's just not happening. The tight hamstrings could be part of it. I get to the mile marker expecting to see that I had a really bad mile. Turns out it was 7:06.

4th mile: I'm glad I had my watch with me and that I was tracking my splits. Because otherwise I really would have thought I didn't have a shot of making my goal of being under 30 minutes. (my challenge goal was to be under 29 min). I guess what I'm saying is I was starting to feel poorly. I was really bummin' that I didn't eat that GU now as well. The only carbs I've had today was 2 slices of toast. Whatever... bad race day management, but I've got 3 good miles behind me so I'm going to keep pushing. There was a bit of a hill going in towards the finish and as hard as I tried to find another gear I had nothing. I was going as fast as I was going to go. Final mile 7:34.

Final Time 29:11 = 7:17 min/mile average
457th overall of 3684
404th Male of 1935
I'm happy with that. I'm confident that it will get faster over the next 3 months.

My lungs always get really funky post race when it's cold out. I think they are fine while I'm running but shortly after I stop breathing deeply just causes me to start coughing. (so I don't breathe deeply for awhile). I think it's the cold. The good news is that I should be able to test that theory out at my next race in 2 weeks, because I will be running that one in Florida.

Big thanks to Kevin and Lara for everything this weekend. We had a great time!