A Sunday day out!
I was running the Paine to Pain Trail Half marathon so we hired a zipcar car for the day and took off for New Rochelle at 7am. It only took us about 50 minutes to get there and it's always good to see more of the suburbs rather than just the city itself.
The race field was around 700 runners and with the High School as the start/finish location it brought back memories of local Scottish races rather than the other larger races I've been used to lately.
Parking in the lot, walking round the (very posh looking) school to the registration area, finishing the race on the school running track and getting a shower in the locker rooms, the local race feel is so much nicer, must be the comfort factor!
The local houses were on the large side too:
The day was a little drizzly, a bit grey but also unfortunately (for me) a teensy bit humid. Which as well as the sweat running down my head meant my prescription eyewear misted up in the corners which for a trail race where you need to see the ground was mildly annoying at times.
You can read about the history of the race here but basically it is 90% off road on forest trails, on recently linked trail paths covering a handful of New York counties with a slight historical link.
No real climbs at all but very undulating, about 700ft of climb & descent. I've come to the conclusion, I prefer the climbs although it's really on the descents I make up time.
Each wave was started with a guy dressed in colonial clothing using his musket. The race organiser in the little pre-race briefing as well as informing us of the slippy wooden bridges told us the musket was 200 years old and in this weather could misfire. True enough, it just clicked, we laughed and held steady for a few seconds more before the proper blast let us go.
I was in wave 1 of 4 and it started with a 1/4 mile drag uphill helping to spread out the field before we hit the trail. In true American style the road was lined with the high school cheerleaders encouraging us to "L-E-T-S G-O, LETS GO".
I settled into a steady pace and after the first 3 or 4 miles the field had sorted itself out and it was the usual situation where you see a couple of people, around the corner, through the trees up ahead then when you pass a few spectators you hear the clapping for the people behind you a few seconds after you pass by them.
It is hard going on your own for that long. I had a couple of tight shoulder moments and knew I didn't feel quite as good as May's half marathons but training has been more geared for the 10K with a few long runs thrown in.
They didn't have many mile markers, maybe just 3 but at the 11M marker I passed the marshall at the side and he said 19th position. Behind me I could hear him say 20 & 21 to the next two guys still in earshot so I decided I wanted a top 20 finish and did a Mo Farah and went for home 2 miles out!
It worked and I came past the cheerleaders and onto the track for the 3/4 lap to the finish well ahead of the next runners.
I finished in just over 1hour 34 mins, 7.12 pace and finished 20th (there was one faster runner in wave 2) out of the 638 finishers and 5th out of the 154 aged 40-49'ers.
It was a pretty tough race for me mainly due to the distance and concentration required as well as the course not really having any climbs to slow you down or downhill to relax on.
The finish area on the track was good, the weather was a bit grey but still warm enough to hang about a bit sampling the free goodies. I had a cookie, half a banana, a small bagel with some peanut butter on top, a carton of coconut water, a smoothie sample and a small donut, ha ha.
Heather took her bike and had a little jaunt round the neighbourhood while I ran. One of the funny pics she took was of this road:
I doubt it sits at the mouth of the River Ness.
My work, albeit another REI, was a mini sponsor so I chatted with Dave the outdoor/outreach guy who had his little table with Powergel giveaways.
Two other little notes about the race were that there were 4 guys who ran the entire course beforehand at dawn with headlamps, jeez.
And more interesting was the first 2 runners were slightly ahead of the 3rd placed guy but within the last couple of miles they went the wrong way! Apparently the 3rd placed guy shouted at them, ran to the finish and then stepped aside just before crossing the line, waited until the first two finished then walked over the line in 3rd. Needless to say he won some kind of sportsmanship award.
As we had the car for the day we had to make the most of it and I don't think I've ever had a post-race recovery like this before. Not since the last time we did the same anyway!
We drove 10 miles to a famous-ish grocery store, cause I love food. Stew Leonards was made out like a farm style supermarket complete with some petting animals round the back and plenty of stuff to keepus the kids entertained as you go round.
Yes, you could indeed press the button and watch her do the banana dance. I bought a sausage loaf that I ate for lunch at work 3 days in a row and we got a free ice cream!
Then we drove back to our storage unit in Dumbo and from our loaded up car, unloaded all our summer clothing, took it up and spent nearly an hour tidying up our unit and coming back to the car with all our winter clothing.
Then back into Manhattan for a quick errand........ then back to Brooklyn and to Target to get some big items like toilet paper and cans of juice. Have I mentioned how I sometimes miss having a car?
Of course then we had to take everything up the stairs to our 4th floor apartment, OMG.
By the time I'd showered (again) we sat down for some pizza around 7pm. We took the car back around 9.15pm and after the 15 min walk home I could enjoy my cheesecake!
I was running the Paine to Pain Trail Half marathon so we hired a zipcar car for the day and took off for New Rochelle at 7am. It only took us about 50 minutes to get there and it's always good to see more of the suburbs rather than just the city itself.
The race field was around 700 runners and with the High School as the start/finish location it brought back memories of local Scottish races rather than the other larger races I've been used to lately.
Parking in the lot, walking round the (very posh looking) school to the registration area, finishing the race on the school running track and getting a shower in the locker rooms, the local race feel is so much nicer, must be the comfort factor!
 |
| New Rochelle High School |
The local houses were on the large side too:
The day was a little drizzly, a bit grey but also unfortunately (for me) a teensy bit humid. Which as well as the sweat running down my head meant my prescription eyewear misted up in the corners which for a trail race where you need to see the ground was mildly annoying at times.
You can read about the history of the race here but basically it is 90% off road on forest trails, on recently linked trail paths covering a handful of New York counties with a slight historical link.
No real climbs at all but very undulating, about 700ft of climb & descent. I've come to the conclusion, I prefer the climbs although it's really on the descents I make up time.
Each wave was started with a guy dressed in colonial clothing using his musket. The race organiser in the little pre-race briefing as well as informing us of the slippy wooden bridges told us the musket was 200 years old and in this weather could misfire. True enough, it just clicked, we laughed and held steady for a few seconds more before the proper blast let us go.
 |
| you looking at me? |
I was in wave 1 of 4 and it started with a 1/4 mile drag uphill helping to spread out the field before we hit the trail. In true American style the road was lined with the high school cheerleaders encouraging us to "L-E-T-S G-O, LETS GO".
I settled into a steady pace and after the first 3 or 4 miles the field had sorted itself out and it was the usual situation where you see a couple of people, around the corner, through the trees up ahead then when you pass a few spectators you hear the clapping for the people behind you a few seconds after you pass by them.
 |
| At mile 6 |
It is hard going on your own for that long. I had a couple of tight shoulder moments and knew I didn't feel quite as good as May's half marathons but training has been more geared for the 10K with a few long runs thrown in.
They didn't have many mile markers, maybe just 3 but at the 11M marker I passed the marshall at the side and he said 19th position. Behind me I could hear him say 20 & 21 to the next two guys still in earshot so I decided I wanted a top 20 finish and did a Mo Farah and went for home 2 miles out!
It worked and I came past the cheerleaders and onto the track for the 3/4 lap to the finish well ahead of the next runners.
I finished in just over 1hour 34 mins, 7.12 pace and finished 20th (there was one faster runner in wave 2) out of the 638 finishers and 5th out of the 154 aged 40-49'ers.
It was a pretty tough race for me mainly due to the distance and concentration required as well as the course not really having any climbs to slow you down or downhill to relax on.
The finish area on the track was good, the weather was a bit grey but still warm enough to hang about a bit sampling the free goodies. I had a cookie, half a banana, a small bagel with some peanut butter on top, a carton of coconut water, a smoothie sample and a small donut, ha ha.
Heather took her bike and had a little jaunt round the neighbourhood while I ran. One of the funny pics she took was of this road:
I doubt it sits at the mouth of the River Ness.
My work, albeit another REI, was a mini sponsor so I chatted with Dave the outdoor/outreach guy who had his little table with Powergel giveaways.
Two other little notes about the race were that there were 4 guys who ran the entire course beforehand at dawn with headlamps, jeez.
And more interesting was the first 2 runners were slightly ahead of the 3rd placed guy but within the last couple of miles they went the wrong way! Apparently the 3rd placed guy shouted at them, ran to the finish and then stepped aside just before crossing the line, waited until the first two finished then walked over the line in 3rd. Needless to say he won some kind of sportsmanship award.
As we had the car for the day we had to make the most of it and I don't think I've ever had a post-race recovery like this before. Not since the last time we did the same anyway!
We drove 10 miles to a famous-ish grocery store, cause I love food. Stew Leonards was made out like a farm style supermarket complete with some petting animals round the back and plenty of stuff to keep
Yes, you could indeed press the button and watch her do the banana dance. I bought a sausage loaf that I ate for lunch at work 3 days in a row and we got a free ice cream!
Then we drove back to our storage unit in Dumbo and from our loaded up car, unloaded all our summer clothing, took it up and spent nearly an hour tidying up our unit and coming back to the car with all our winter clothing.
Then back into Manhattan for a quick errand........ then back to Brooklyn and to Target to get some big items like toilet paper and cans of juice. Have I mentioned how I sometimes miss having a car?
Of course then we had to take everything up the stairs to our 4th floor apartment, OMG.
By the time I'd showered (again) we sat down for some pizza around 7pm. We took the car back around 9.15pm and after the 15 min walk home I could enjoy my cheesecake!
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