Eurotrip

Beginning of October I headed back to Scotland for the first time since moving over here!
We only had one day in Aberdeen before heading over to Prague for a few days then over to Amsterdam for another few days.

38.58, not bad for a belly full of dumplings

Singing to our section

Sightseeing, U2 in concert and a night time 10K in Prague along with a major amount of walking.
I won't go into everything we did but all photos are here and over on Instagram.

Back to Scotland and up to Inverness where we had birthday fun and I did my first Parkrun 5K. In trying to not lose too much fitness I then proceeded to do my 20M run. I'd average close to 50M a week since starting my marathon plan but dropped to 20-ish for the three weeks we were away.

Then we spent a few days touring the West of Scotland, particularly the area around Skye, my family and Heather's mum and sister along for the Scottish part of our trip.

Fairy Pools!

AKA, the Harry Potter train

Over the sea to....

As far as marathon training goes, I jumped straight back into it the week we got home and things have been going really well. The marginally cooler weather, still in shorts (just), and final 5 weeks of training left has seen my fitness improve dramatically.

3.15 is actually my age group qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. I don't have the pull to do Boston that everyone else seems to but it seemed an achievable goal when I started training especially as my first last year was 3.24-something.
I hesitate to say I'm now looking to maybe duck under 3.10 when I line up on November 22nd assuming the weather on  the day isn't too bad and these last 5 weeks go well.

Diz-gus-ting - Queen's 10K!

Sunday's Queen's 10K was my remaining goal race for the year so far.

After the marathon and half marathon I went down to 10K hoping to use that leftover higher mileage training to get close to last years 38.11 at the same venue.
Oh well, best laid plans......

The night before there was a thunderstorm. They sent out notice they had delayed the start by an hour to 9am hoping the rain would have stopped and the course would be dry.
I was glad of the extra hour in bed and it seemed to have worked as there was only light drizzle when I left for the train around 7am.

The downside was the humidity was around 94% (21 degrees) and after a couple of miles I could already feel this wasn't going to work out well.

I started a little fast, 5.54 but the 6.06 2nd miles had me right on pace. Then my vest started to weigh me down as it was already soaked in sweat, ha ha.
Nah, more just the humidity started to work its magic and my breathing (and legs) felt heavy. I had to pour water onto my cap at each stop for all the good that did.
I started to slow, 6.16, 6.24 and I knew I wouldn't make that back up.

Mile 6: I'm flying, but inside I'm dead

6.19 and 6.20 was the best I could do to finish in 38.55.

The relief!!!!!

After speaking with a couple of people from the club, on reflection this was a decent time and without the humidity would've been right on last years time.

I came in 61st and 8th in my age group out of the 8650 finishers.

Everybody getting their globe photo

Spectating not racing

Heather and a couple of friends did the Running Of The Balls 5K and or 10K today. I went along to spectate, support and have a little jog around Roosevelt Island cause it's a funky little island to visit!

And of course you get to take the Tram thing back across to Manhattan. I did nearly 4M of light jogging around in prep for tomorrow's Queens 10K. Just watching the weather forecast now though as it's supposed to be rain for sure and chance of a thunderstorm. Aggggghhhhhh, humidity!

Leatherman's Loop 10K

I entered the Leatherman's Loop 10K race back in January through their lottery system. Luckily I got in at my first attempt but the way things worked out it turned out to be one week, actually just six days, before I do my main goal race, The North Face Endurance Challenge Bear Mountain Marathon.

I should be okay as it was soft enough in places (see below!) that I don't have the same soreness normally associated with 10K trail events and another good reminder of how good it is to get back into the countryside and get some proper off-road running done.

I shared a car ride up with one of the guys from the Prospect Park Track Club and we left at 6am to avoid the long wait to get access to the car park we had heard about if you didn't arrive before 8am.
We got there at 7.40am which felt really early but by 8am the place was heaving.

The warning pic form their website!

This was my first event competing in my new PPTC club kit which lead to me getting my first shout from a spectator of 'Cmon PPTC'.

It was the 29th running of the event and apparently it is one of the largest fields for a trail race in the US that isn't a Spartan or Tough Mudder event, there were over 1200 finishers this year.

The start was like a cross country, wide open over a rough dry meadow with the herd of runners trampling their way to a left hand bend and sprinting to get to the front as the path narrowed to single and double file for most of the next mile. 

Where's Chris?

Ready, Set, GO!

I had heard the first three miles were the hardest but without knowing the course it was difficult to know how hard to push it from the start. We started near the front but I was definitely delayed due to the number of people around me. A little here but more once we turned into the woods and the path and roughness underfoot meant it was difficult to run close or pass people.

Once the field separated and things settled down I began to enjoy the varying terrain, being able to see where you are going helps!

There were rough forestry trails with gnarly (a favourite word with a lot of REI employees) tree roots and rocks, then the mud flats!

Small video of the mud.

Then after a bit of narrow trail action it opened up to a dirt hill that was short but so steep everyone was using their hands to claw their way up.
Just before that I had a smile on my face as there was both a bagpiper and a mariachi band!

There were two mini water crossings during the first 4 miles and after a bit of a downhill stretch towards the finish there came the infamous water crossing where all the spectators lined the exit up the bank cheering as you jumped up and sprinted the final few hundred meters to the finish.
One of the best finishes to a race I've ever done.

There were tonnes of photographers there and they post the photos on their website for free!

1.

2.

3.

Despite the above 'technique' surprisingly picture 4 was me exiting the water and not falling face first in as you might have expected.
I felt good towards the end and finished with 7.03 and 6.47 mile splits.

Not everyone was so lucky:

On purpose??

I came in 17th and had heard beforehand that under 45mins was considered a good time. I did 45.41 and as is my thing nowadays I thought I might be close to the age group awards but similar to Scotland the 40-49 age group is very competitive in the rougher, hillier trail events so I could only manage 7th!

Definitely one I'd travel up to do again.

Hopefully not as wet next week!

Queens 10K

Next up in the NYRR 5-Borough Series was Sunday's Queens 10K.

 
After May's half marathon I tried concentrating on more distance endurance rather than the speed sessions I did last year and also took part in quite a few weekly 5K races instead.
I felt I had more stamina at this point in the year and had made the Queen's 10K my next target with the hope of getting under the 39 minute mark. Indeed, with my last couple of 5K times I actually thought I might be able to hold a mile pace of 6.10 especially on a near flat course.

I took the F train out to Queens, seeing a couple of runners join the train at each stop. Then by the time I switched to the 7 train to head further out to the 2nd last stop the train was completely full with runners and spectators. When we exited it was like going to a football game or something. There is a long wooden walkway from the station over to the tennis court and park entrance and it was just a sea of runners.

Flushing Meadows Corona Park. I've been out here and across the road a couple of times to where the Mets play baseball but never over to the park on the other side, in the shadow of where the US Open tennis is played. It was also my first close-up sighting of the Unisphere. Famous from the World's Fair Expos, whatever they were!

I didn't really see much of the sights during the run as I was too busy concentrating, ha ha. It helped this time that the paths were reasonably wide and there were enough runners, over 8400 finishers, that I could just do my own thing unlike the smaller races where you end up racing the same couple of people for almost the entire race.

©NYRR

©NYRR

My mile splits were 6.02, 6.00, 6.13, 6.22 (tiny uphill), 6.09, 6.08 (& 1.14). For a really pleasing 38.11 finishing time. 62nd overall and 7th in my age group. My 5K split was 18.57 which is like my 4th fastest 5K as well, ha ha.

It was also probably one of the last chances to get a decent race in before the temperatures take their toll on me. My mouth was so dry during the entire race, I took a cup of water at three of the stops, didn't drink any, just rubbed some over my lips.
The sun was out in full force before 9am and I noticed from this picture below that they must've turned on a hose not long after I passed by.

©NYRR

They took a couple of good pictures out on the course, I'm sure a few people will buy them with the globe in the background.

Dug out the short shorts

Like a few other people I wandered over afterwards and had a look and took a couple of pictures.

Got a pretty nice race tee for a change too.

On the way back I stopped off on 5th Avenue back in Brooklyn and hit up the farmers market for a couple of goodies, including a small cherry pie and then ate some gelato while I took the bus a few stops to home.
As usual, it felt like I'd been away for ages but I was still home at noon, just in time to drift in and out of sleep while watching the World Cup. A couple of hours in the sunshine gets me every time!

Roosevelt Island 10K

As I've mentioned before, without having a car, a lot of things you do here such as entering races depends on the race location and how easy it is to get there especially for an early weekend start.

NYC Runs is an alternative local event organiser to the NYRR's and they had a 5K & 10K on Saturday morning on Roosevelt Island, this narrow strip in the East River between Manhattan and Queens.

The only subway stop there is 'our' F train and with the 10K starting at 9.30am I thought it would be easy to get to. Of course, the MTA's year-round weekend subway work is always a surprise when you look it up a couple of days before to find the F train stops around that area are not in use over the weekend. The other pedestrian way to get to the island is by tram! But timing that right and thinking there might be a long line of runners put me off that option.

In the end, my new fairly regular weekday schedule of getting up at 6.30am helped as I comfortably left the house at 7am and following the MTA website intended to take the F a couple of stops past Roosevelt Island, switch platform and come back the way, where it stopped on the island heading into Manhattan.
This worked fine, despite it running on the M line and not the C line like the website suggested and so the conductor told everyone to switch at another station, completely different to the website instructions but it actually worked out better for me. But you can see how every New Yorker hates the MTA and their communcations.

I got there super early (read that as on time) around 8.40am and had plenty time to scope out the island.

Coolest portaloo view ever

I had briefly visited once before to a friend of a friends house but not walked around outside anywhere. It has a strange feel, like a community all of its own. Albeit a community with a scary abandoned smallpox hospital at one end of the island that is.

Walked over to the water and got a couple of photos while I waited.

Tram!

59th St / Queensboro Brdge

There was a NYRR's 10K in Central Park at the same time, with 8000 runners and this combined with the location meant the field was going to be nice and small. I watched the 5K leave the start line at 9am and there was a little over 200 runners in that.

Then they informed us 10 minutes before the start of the 10K that because of the train situation the start was going to be delayed 15 minutes. So annoying, you could see it was going to be like that a few days before so I don't know why it was a surprise to people? You go somewhere here at the weekend, you check the trains!
In the end it was 20 minutes late in starting. Never a good thing because you've timed everything for a particular start time plus the cloudy start to the day was ending and turning into bright sunshine.

I looked around and there didn't look to be many runners lining up. When they called us forward to the line, I was reluctantly at the front, I've never done a race where nobody wanted to be right at the front. When the horn went, I was second only to a young guy in long shorts and wearing headphones. Something told me the fast pace he went off at wouldn't last. I felt really weird to be in second place for the first half mile although I could hear some guys behind me.

The course had a little stretch at the start near the bottom of the island where you rounded a cone before heading back for two laps of the island.

Despite following a race marshall wearing a fluorescent yellow tee riding a stand up elliptical bike and despite there being an additional marshall behind the turning cone the leader turned left, got shouted at and came back, then headed straight on to the dead end. As I rounded the cone and headed back people shouted at him and then he came sprinting past me. I could hear someone behind me say that's why you don't wear headphones in a race.

Around mile 1 I was joined by two other runners and I settled just behind them. A taller guy came past us and slowly pulled away from our mini group. The original leader was passed by us all never to be seen again.

I found it funny to be in a 10K race where it was just like watching a road race develop on tv. You have this little group of runners all feeling each other out. I'm used to either doing races where I'm maybe beside others or trying to catch others but amongst hundreds or thousands of runners. Or, like last week, just pretty much on my own.

One guy broke away for a few miles and me and the other guy paced each other side by side for 3-4 miles before we caught him just after mile 5. The path on the far side was quite narrow so I took to the grass and tried to go for a long sprint to the finish with around a mile to go. I thought I just have to beat one to be in the top 3, ha ha.

Once I hit the wider concrete path, you could see the finish up ahead so I kicked again if you can call it that, more of a strong finish rather than any actual sprinting. I was actually reeling in the leader but he was too far away. I came in second and immediately as I crossed the line and started walking I felt the urge to throw up. I did the throwing up motion twice, felt me mouth fill with saliva but then it stopped and I managed to feel normal again.
I think the heat, it was around 22 degrees for the last half of the race, the sprint for home (maximum heart rate of 209) and the accidental sip of gatorade instead of water with a mile to go contributed to that.

I chatted with the other three guys and the leader said he was totally waiting for us to breeze past at any moment. The guy I ran alongside for most of the race said it was good pacing and how he like the little events like this. Turned out to be only 136 finishers.

I was 13 secs behind the winner in 39:57, 3 secs ahead of 3rd place. It felt like it might be a little faster, but again my quads were a bit tight from the previous nights soccer. And the course was a little exposed to the wind down one side of the island. Although anything under 40mins is good enough for me though.

Ta-da!!

Then in a slightly tourist style I took the tram back over to Manhattan. You just use your regular Metrocard and it only takes 5 minutes, then a little walk to get the train home.

The Jason Bourne roof top jump on the back left ha ha

Rear window view

The NYRR 10K in Central Park had some elite runners due to the $25,000 cash prize on offer from the UAE sponsor and this produced an amazing winning time of 27:39, the top 10 all under 30 minutes! My time would've placed around 150th place, more ahead of me there than did the entire Roosevelt Island race, ha ha.

But choosing to run somewhere different had a nice day out feel to it and it gave me the experience of running a race right at the front AND I came home with a little glass plaque with a Mother's Day wonder woman on it!