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

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!

Anyone for tennis?

So, I guess I'm 40 now! We couldn't really afford to go out to a steakhouse like we planned so instead we bought $40 of good meat and had a meatfest at home. We just failed in polishing the whole lot of in one go :(

NY Strip x2 & Boneless Rib

Then midweek, we were back on the concert trail with a good gig on Wednesday. Heather's favourites Mumford & Sons were back in NY and were at a new location for us, the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens.

We'd read about the venue when we managed to get the tickets and it was also in the news in the run up to the concert as it apparently hosted the U.S. Open tennis until 1978 and had hosted concerts before by such famous folk as Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and the Stones.

Despite them still using the rest of the tennis courts and surrounding country club the main stadium which is 90 years old had been derelict and falling into disrepair. Mumfords helped a local promoter reboot it as a concert venue and this was the first gig here for more than 20 years but with the promise of more to come in the next couple of years.

The gig was sold out with nearly 17,000 people cramming into the place. There were some first gig teething problems including a near 40minute wait in the pizza line. A wood fired oven pizza truck though so it was worth the wait…. I think.
The gates opened at 5pm and I had to reschedule my work days so we could leave around 3.30pm to get there just after 5pm. Just as well, as the main problem seemed to be a lot of late arrivals who couldn't get into the venue.

Like most things in NY, a lot of people show up just after it starts but this time there was nowhere for them to go once they started to come up the stairways so it provided a slight distraction as we watched them argue with security who wouldn't let them up the last few stairs as there was literally no space to be filled. Indeed, they were telling people that if you left you wouldn't get back up. This was also causing some problems for the people who can't go 15 mins without a beer!
It did calm down slightly near the end but only cause people must've gone elsewhere.

Always spot the Scot from afar!

Not really a bad view in the place, could be a good venue to go back to for sure. Most importantly of course it was just a 5 minute walk to the train and apart from the hour trip involved no transfers! Hopefully they get some good performers next year.

I'm off Labor Day Monday, don't know what it is but I'll take it. I think it signifies the end of summer here, the school holidays are over.