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

First race of the year

Three solid weeks of 50miles per week. In the middle I ran my first race of the year, the Al Gordon 4M across the road in Prospect Park. It was pretty pretty cold.
I had to pick up my number on race day morning so tried to time it so I didn't hang to hang about too long but ended up having 30mins to wait. I jogged about for 15+ mins so combined with the jog over it was a good extra 3miles added to the log!
I could tell it was cold when I was sheltering behind the first aid tent near the start. I think it was around -6 but the wind felt cold and my hands and nose were numb during the entire race. Looking back at last year, I ran the same race in long shorts and compression socks, not this time!

Felt strong with all the distance training, averaged 6.16 pace for 25.01. It was a NYRR member only classic event ($10) and I finished 49th  out of 1050 and a solid 4th in the 40-44 age group.

Nice icy water

Sunday was my 4th ever time hitting 20M and possibly the best I've felt on a run of such length.
I even got some hill training in as I ran 12M on the road, using our mailbox as a storage unit for my trail shoes and some fluids etc, changed into my trail shoes then hit up Prospect Park for 7M of snowy trails and a few hill loops.

I even found some snow art which perked me up around the 16M mark.

Also been getting some actual good proper photos while out on my runs.
Had to pause during my midweek morning commute over the Manhattan Bridge to catch the rising sun and the ice flowing down the East River.

Then down Redhook at the piers behind Ikea on Saturday was like a frozen wasteland.

Cross Country in the sun

Yesterday I did the Pete McArdle 15K Cross Country up in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx.

When I got up I looked out our rear window and found there were three parrots sitting in the trees!

As we practically back onto Greenwood cemetery I presumed they were the ones that nestle above the main entrance to the Cemetery. When we did the tour back in April we were told all about them.

Although it takes around 1 hour 45mins to get there the later start time (11.30am) and the nice quiet green surroundings definitely make it worth heading up there for races.
Plus it was only $15 and amazingly the weather was shorts and t-shirt weather with no need for arm warmers or gloves, even while hanging about waiting for the start.

NYRR

I have done very little running since the marathon and this is my rest period before next year, ha ha but despite still having that lingering cough I thought I would have decent strength to get through a very tough 9.3M course.

NYRR

One mini 4 min loop then 3 roughly 5K loops including the hills and descents in the back wooded section. Three times, aaggghh! 600ft of ascent and descent in total.

NYRR

Lots of stone steps I guess to stop ground erosion but it means you constantly check your stride and do a lot of slamming down if you let yourself fly down the descents. Consequently my shins today are really really sore and tight.

I ran well though. Did roughly 19.45, 20.17 and 20.05 for the loops averaging a mighty 197 heart rate for the race.

1.04.38 for 31st place (321 finishers) and 6th in my age group.

Marathon madness

NYC Marathon weekend was fun... almost as fun as running one.

There was a big group over from Aberdeen, Friends of Hazlehead, running the marathon and thanks to Mel and Myles Edwards they had a little presentation when they had their pasta dinner the night before with Katherine Switzer and her husband Roger Robinson.
We kindly accepted the invite and both of us turned up just in time to hear Katherine speak. It was good and also nice to see Mel and Myles along with hearing a load of Aberdonian voices!

I gave Myles and a couple of the supporters directions to Brooklyn and met them just after mile 5 on the Sunday. As well as me trying (and failing) to spot the few people I knew running we were looking out for their runners and managed to spot, cheer and speak to around 10 or 12 of their group as they passed by.

Having two Scottish flags on our little Scots corner also meant we attracted the numerous other Scots in the field, along with a couple of shouts from English runners and one Irish guy who shouted "close enough". We also traded shouts of support, which was basically shouting the name of the country on their top mainly with the French and Swedish.

Elite women

Elite men

Due to the nature of the wave starts around mile 5 you see increasing numbers of runners coming then the main lot where it is nearly impossible to spot people unless you've really planned it out beforehand then it slows down a little as it nears the back of that wave then quickly fills out across the road as the next wave catches up and so on.

4th Avenue is one long long road and it looks pretty cool both for spectators and runners as you look up and down the road.

 As well as the few in fancy dress there was one guy juggling three little balls and this guy:

The weather was so different to our DC one the week previous.
I heard the wind was pretty strong particularly over all the bridges and after 4 hours standing there I helped put Myles and the others back on the subway to Central Park then jog/walked the mile or so back home before spending 30mins in the shower regaining feeling in my fingers.

Then tried to spot us on the tv replay:

Week 12 - Bronx 10M

I had sore shins after my trail half marathon but other than general tiredness I was pretty pleased with how I felt. I took Monday off, had a couple of steady runs during the week then had a good 800m on/off session on the Westside on Friday before a nice dinner with Heather's Hawaiian neighbours who were visiting for the week on a holiday tour.
Saturday was DIY day (with some help from other friends) and I decided to rest from running that day so I could be ready for the following week as it is the last hard week of the plan.
Sunday was the Bronx 10M!

I kinda wished I hadn't entered so I could concentrate on sticking to the training plan but as the Bronx was a borough I'd never run on the roads in, I first decided to run, then I decided to try my damn hardest to resist racing and just run it at the pace I have been doing the marathon pace sessions at, around 7.45-ish.

Again, it was funny when I switched trains in midtown Manhattan around 7am to see the train completely fill up with runners. I didn't bother with a bag as it was around 18 degrees at 6am so just went ready to "race". When I got there, I tried to do a light jog of around 1.5M's to warm up and also so I could add that to my total for the day as it was supposed to be a 12M run that day.

Despite trying and feeling that I was going slow and comfortable from the gun, I was too fast for the first couple of miles (naturally). But I manged to slow to down and averaged about 7.40 pace for the rest of the run! I even managed to hold myself back from picking the pace up for the last mile which was probably the hardest as what roadside support there was were shouting at all the runners to go for it in the last mile.

It was quite weird to do a race and not give 100%. My brain seemed to have too much information and thoughts as I had more time to take in what was going on around me, ha ha. It got more enjoyable as the race went on though and I finished and felt great. Grabbed a bagel a drink and a banana and I was off home on the train.

As a side note, around mile 6 I caught up with and finished the race alongside Mary Wittenberg who is the CEO of NYRR. I had seen her shed her tee and jump into the race after giving her pre-race speech so recognised her from behind when I caught up. She was getting a few shouts of support along the course including a "good job Mary" from some officers inside a parked NYPD car.

So it's going well. I'm not really putting in a high high mileage but keeping regular runs during the week, one longer run then making sure I get the Saturday longer run or pace run in followed up the next day by the long slow run.
This week is the last hard week ending with a 10M pace run followed by my last 20M run. I feel I need to do that now as it feels like a few weeks since I last ran a long run.

Incidentally my new post-run food are now ricotta/lemon pancakes with some scoops of protein powder and sliced bananas along with toppings!

Week 12: 31M

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!

Scotland 10K

Anne & Murd's visit was timed with Tartan Week here in New York which meant the NYRR's Scotland 10K on the day before they left. It had to be done, so I made sure they had entered the race a few weeks before they came over here.

Took them to New York Road Runner's HQ to collect their numbers the day before and combined it with a walk past the reservoir in Central Park.

Race day was sunny, cool, perfect running weather, one of the few races of that distance that I never took any fluids from the water stations during the race.

I made sure I started far enough up and pushed a little harder than last year. I ended up feeling strong and ran the first half faster than than last year and then tried to hang on as I was marginally slower over the second half than 2013 but I pushed for the line to crack 40 minutes again, 39.55.

It's certainly a rolling course running a lap of Central Park. Anne & Murd enjoyed it even though it took them a little bit to get past all the people in front of them and get settled into their running. Anne actually managed 4th in her age group!!

They had a great trip, I am knackered after planning out nearly every day with miles of walking every day and far larger dinners than normal each night.

Prospect Park was officially opened for the season this weekend, some more port-a-loos installed and the water fountains turned on, timed perfectly with getting back to normal and stepping up the training as I realised the Bear Mountain Half is around 4 weeks away, yikes.

A Classic

Saturday morning was the first in a series of New York Road Runner races selected as "classics". After runner feedback NYRR's this year are offering some no-frills events open only to NYRR members and costing just $10. This meant smaller fields, no t-shirts, no post-race festivities, no awards and according to their website after the race, no complaints! They had water and I made sure I got my free cinnamon raisin bagel at the end.

No real training this week apart from one slightly treacherous bike ride to work but rolled out of bed at 6.45am to jog over for the early 8am start. 5 degrees and sunny, perfect considering it was pouring rain all day Friday.

the start ©NYRR

The first mile was out of the Centre Drive and up the hill then it's a gradual downhill mile, the end of the downhill flat mile and a marginally uphill finish turning back onto the Centre Drive.
This meant I had splits of 6.23, 6.31, 6.05 and 6.25 for a decent average of 6.22.

I finished in 25.25, placing 73rd out of the 1898 finishers and 5th in the 40-44 age group.
All three races this year I have been well over a minute faster than in 2013 but boy were my calves tight after this one and my hamstrings too. But I certainly had to stretch my calves on the way home, oooh wee. Home by 8.50am which is still funny to be home so early after a race but good I guess.

Later in the afternoon we went to our storage unit as Heather needed stuff to use on her upcoming family trip to the Phillipines. Then we walked to The Chip Shop and had haddock & chips. Fish was nice, uk-style chips with salt & vinegar were good for a change but it was more pub style than chip shop as it needs to come in paper and be eaten outside to be proper ha ha.

Next up is actually a duathlon! Something I haven't done for a couple of years so we'll see. I haven't been biking much and I'll have to blow the dust and debris off my road bike. No, I actually will. It has been stored in the basement at work pretty much since I arrived and it has a layer of grime on it.
Just hoping the weather and the roads clear up enough to at least get on it once or twice before race day comes around in the middle of March.

Kurt Steiner 5K

Sunday, a beautiful bright sunny morning and a two hour, 1 bus and 3 train ride up to Van Cortland Park for a 5K New York Road Runner's Cross Country.

After the half marathon, the 10K the week after this was going to be my final 'serious' race for the season. I couldn't make the previous one and the 40-44 age group results showed the medals for the top 3 were up for grabs.... maybe, fingers crossed.

A good size field of 280 runners, I'd have preferred a better warm up but train delays put paid to that. I set off and eventually the field was strung out. Eventually I caught up with the 1st placed girl and used her as bait to pull me on and then concentrated on catching the guy in front over the last 1/4 mile.

My heart rate actually maxed out at 213 at the finish after I tried my hardest! I walked slowly past the medal table, your age groups are on the race numbers, and after the guy in front got something they called me back and handed me a medal.

So I got 2nd 40-44, yay! 19.26 (6.17 pace) but you can tell there were a lot of good club runners (because it's a NYRR event) as I was 38th place in total.

The results are funny because if you are a NYRR member you can fill in your club name or where you live such as Brooklyn or Queens, etc but you can put your country if you are not American. So I was first Brit, ha ha, the first page of results has a finisher from Canada, Israel, France, Spain, Paraguay and more.
The winner has won a few of the races, he is from Uganda. No photos of me this time but a couple of the winner to show the nice sunny weather we still have, ha ha.

 
It's just now starting to get close to dipping below the 10 degrees mark.
We can moan about the humidity during the summer but the other side to that is today was the first day since sometime in April that I didn't wear shorts to work!

Fifth Avenue Mile

The Fifth Avenue Mile is an annual NYRR event that has run since 1981 and 5182 runners were out to test themselves over the one-mile distance.
It was a cloudless, cool morning on the first day of autumn and we had a very mild wind at our backs.
The course is a straight run down Fifth Avenue from just outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 80th Street to Grand Army Plaza at 60th Street.

A very unusual race distance.... unless you're a track athlete I guess.
As well as the elite races all the other runners go off in age groups. So when we got there we watched the males 30-39 running down and I noticed how many there were and especially how closely packed it was at the start. I only had time for a 10 minute jog with a few strides beforehand as I deemed it more important to be lined up further forward in the coral waiting to start rather than doing a longer warm-up. The other thing I thought when the 30-39 age group was running past was, are you sure that's not MY age group?!

NYRR

There were 579 men in the 40-49 age coral but the results were split 40-44 and 45-49.
So I spent around 20 minutes standing in the sun waiting as the women up ahead ran then we were pulled forward to the line. The nearby DJ played age appropriate music as we waited, tailoring it to each age group as the ages ranged from around 12 to 94!!

Once we started it was difficult to know how hard to push. I didn't see the supposed 1/4 mile marks probably as the first half I spent picking a route among the runners that had gone off too hard. The other thing I remember is that my mouth and lips were so dry!

It was strange, I looked at my watch and seen 3 minutes-something so I picked the pace up thinking that's less than 3 minutes of running to go. Then I looked up and could see the finish banner but objects on the horizon can be further away than you think and I was trying to hold a little back for a good finish. Then all of a sudden it was within touching distance so I went all out and was passing runners, finishing strong, then it was over!!

I had no idea what time I'd do but having done a final mile 5.59 back in May's 5K I was thinking anything below that was the aim. As I approached the clock and seen 5.20 I pushed on and finished in 5.23 for 46th place in the age group (375th out of 5182).
Kind of immediately I wished I could do it again, part novelty factor but more that I thought I could pace it better. After walking round the corner to meet Heather it felt like you had barely done anything! It had all the trappings of a regular race, the early mornings, the travel, the nerves, etc without the feeling you had pushed yourself hard for a certain length of time... I burned about 99 calories.