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.

Urban Environmental Challenge

As part of the training for running the Bear Mountain Half and also as part of a continual search for new (off-road) runs I took the one hour forty minute, three train ride north into the Bronx to Van Cortland Park where the local club organise the Urban Environmental Challenge, excitingly billed as "a 10K of true cross country trails".

After last weeks "vacation" walks around the city and getting the cold I got my training back on track with a couple of 6 mile efforts during the week and then finally got a longer 11M run in on Friday morning. With my dry throat and runny nose combined with the warmer weather it was a pretty rough run. I had to lie on the stretching mat for 5 minutes with my eyes closed to recover but then went and killed myself by playing soccer later that night!

So my quads were a little tired this morning but I felt quite good once I got going. Spring is most definitely here now, luckily it was all under tree cover but afterwards it was flip flop weather and mild sunburn weather too, probably.

Right in the middle

The course started on the gravel paths but very quickly turned off onto proper little woodland trails, yay. At last, some true off-roading. Well marked with little orange flags and marshalls at the turns. I had no idea where I was in relation to the main park and even when we dipped back down to the starting path, we quickly went back into the woods and took a different route thus avoiding running the same trail, which is always nice.

Breaking out the vest for 2014 on the main gravel path

As usual, after a couple of miles things settle down and you have the same few runners in your sights, etc. I ended up passing a few without really being passed at all. You can maintain a decent pace despite the twists and turns and it was similar to Bear Mountain (and most other proper trail races) where your attention doesn't really shift from where you're planting your feet and staying on course that you don't have as much time to focus on things like tiredness!

I knew the age group prizes were (some supposedly very tasty) carrot cakes and knew/hoped I would be there or thereabouts for an award. I reeled in a guy in the last mile but he passed me dropping back onto the final gravel path run in and I didn't have the strength to keep with him.
Turned out that there were some good runners in the 40-49 age group and of course, he turned out to be the 3rd one!! I finished 12th overall but 4th 40-49 so just missed out.

Urgh, 4th. WTF.

I had persuaded two friends of ours, also doing the Bear Moutain Half, that this would be good training for them and Dawna, in her first ever trail run managed 2nd in the 30-39 females! So in the end after brunch we shared a piece of her carrot cake. It was tasty, more cake-like than usual but thankfully it was only the winners that got the massive ones otherwise I really would have been upset.

Only $19 to enter too. So if you ever want to run a 10K in Central Park with 8000+ people strictly organised by NYRR's and then the following week do a relaxed, low-key, couple of hundred people trail race where they delay the start by 4 minutes as people walk over from registration then this is your time of year to visit.

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.

The Cherry Tree 10 Miler

One of the best races in the year I think. It's 10M early in the year, so it forces you into some good training to kick start the years racing and more importantly it's cheap and registration and the start are 10 minutes away. Nothing better than going to your own toilet less than 30 minutes before hitting the start line, all runners will appreciate that!

It had snowed the night before but they had plowed the park drive apart from a few patches of slush, probably the most slush I've ever ran through... for a road race! -5 degrees Celsius but not too windy.

© NYC Running Source

Look! There I am on the right.

So, three laps, steady, felt good. Park was cold for half the course and a bit warmer in the sunnier half. Decided to take a sip of water on the second lap, first time I've done a race where I could feel and hear the ice rattling in the bottom of the paper cup!
Ended up on my own-ish for a little while, then halfway round lap two you start encountering some of the slower runners and some of the relay participants. You get a boost when you go past the finish line turn-off as they have all the relay runners lined up waiting as well as the majority of the spectators.

Finished strong and ended up just over a minute faster than last year, albeit it wasn't quite as windy this year. 1.08.34 for 6.51 pace. 46th from 512 finishers and 7th out of 62 in the 40-49 age group. The overall winner was 52.33 by the way!

Then enjoyed some of the valentine's red velvet cake I made the day before.... after my chicken fingers and pizza were delivered.

Due to another snowfall during the week, later work hours and icy conditions I didn't get up to too much this week but another Prospect Park race on Saturday, a nice 4M.
Hopefully the weather is going to turn soon. Snow is all well and good but the trails are just too icy and hard packed to get any decent running in and I'm avoiding the road for as long as I can.

Superbowl Sunday

My running has been on a bit of a hiatus since the end of last year, even before that actually. But I've started getting back into it, helped by the chance to get out and run in the snow as well as some races I've entered. The first one of the year was the NYRR Gridiron Classic, a 4 miler in Central Park on the morning of the Superbowl.
Apparently the Superbowl is only beaten by Thanksgiving in terms of the amount of food consumed by your average American on that day. The race helps with that but at only 4M I only burned about 480 calories so didn't make that much difference when we had our steak and roast potatoes.... and ice cream... and crisps.

A lot of people in their Denver Broncos kit and a few in Seattle colours, the mid-course vote, two mats with team headers gave 58% to the Broncos. In the end that couldn't have been further from what actually happened that night!

We've had so much more snow than last winter. It seems every few days there is another snow shower. It's fine until it starts disrupting the trains or gets too frosty and icy.

 Weather turned out to be a mild 4 degrees with little wind, much better than last year. Again, with 5200 runners the first mile wasn't that enjoyable, trying to find a gap and not trip up people.

I didn't really feel that great, it was a bit of a struggle. I had just gotten over having the cold and it must have still been present as my heart rate ended up averaging 199, topping out at 211 at the finish, I didn't even do much of a sprint finish either.

But I must have maintained some strength from last year as I average a decent 6.22 minute mile for 25.27, 114th overall and 12th in my age group.

Next up is the local Cherry Tree 10M on Sunday. I haven't ran more than an hour for what feels like ages so on my day off and with our soccer continually being cancelled, last Friday I ran the 8M to work, used the showering facilities and then took the train home. Now I feel a bit better about it and although 3 laps of the park isn't that enjoyable the fact that race registration is at the school at the top of our road and the start is short jog away makes it worth doing... as well as getting that race distance in early in the season.

Rock 'n' Roll

After last weekend's half marathon this Saturday it was the attempt at a sub-40 min 10K.

The (mildly overpriced but late substitution for the intended DC 10K) Rock 'n' Roll 10K in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. I got up in the dark around 6.20am for the early 7.30am start. I had decided to give baggage check a miss and just run over there ready to race in my kit with just a bottle of water in hand.

There was supposed to be around 7000 people so I thought things might be a bit hectic but I couldn't have been more wrong! In the end there were 'just' the 4111 finishers. I had the shortest line for a port-a-loo ever, probably because they had some beside the start as well as in the main gathering area where most of the other people were waiting. Then 15mins before the start I got into the coral to find much more space than a NYRR event and despite the 15 elite men and women at the very front I was in the second or third row of people from the start line!

There was a distinct lack of what I would say good club runners, a noticeable lack of running vests, more t-shirts, ha ha. I know the Staten Island Half Marathon was the following day and it is a NYRR qualifying event for the NY Marathon. Maybe people thought this was a slightly gimmicky event, I dunno.

I know the course like the back of my hand so set off fast knowing the slight uphill first mile was followed by a downhill 2nd and a flat 3rd and 4th. The 5th mile is a steady climb in the park, a killer hill for some people but the last mile is a gradual descent with the turn and last 1/4 mile to the finish.
Plus I'm getting used to going off faster than I ever used to, getting a better judge of pace too.

The weather was perfect. Ever so slightly cloudy, about 14 degrees with a mild breeze in places and because of the early start the sun didn't really come out until I was walking home.

My splits were about 6.32, 6.04, 6.09, 6.20, 6.45, 6.04, 1.13 for a finishing time of 39.12 (6.19 pace).
I finished in 36th place overall and when I logged in to see the results was pretty amazed to see I am apparently 2nd (out of 185) in the 40-44. The bad news was I was beaten by 1 second. ONE SECOND!!! According to the gun time he finished around 2mins behind me so it's not like I knew or we even sprinted it out or anything.

Good pic! Looking good... after 1.5M!

Not looking so good 30 secs after the finish

 The website says the marathon and half series they host give awards to the top 3 in each age group, by mail, 4-6 weeks after the event so fingers crossed they do it for the 10K too.
That would make the entry fee worth it, seeing as there wasn't even a bagel at the finish just bananas and apples and free chocolate milk. At least the t-shirt was a tech Brooks one albeit with an early 1990's style print.

So in the year of turning 40 that's a 10K PB (I've no idea how fast I ran as kid) to go along with PB's in the 5K, 10M and 1/2 Marathon. Very very mild disappointment at not cracking 39 now, or indeed being 2 seconds faster!

Next week is a cross-country 5K and then I'm taking it easy.

Paine to Pain

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!

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 us 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!

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.

NYRR Medalist

Sunday was the NYRR Henry Isola Cross Country Classic back up around Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. My first race in the Over 40 category (40-44).

The weather had been 90 degrees a couple of days before, one of the latest in the year 90 degree days for a long time apparently. But after a quick thunderstorm complete with crazy lightning, the humidity was gone and it was perfect running weather again, around 19 degrees.
Of course I now have a light sunburn mark from my vest despite being in the sun for all of 30 minutes!

The park area looked good, lots of football games on and a couple of groups of Indians playing cricket. Plus before our race there were some school cross country championships on too, which included a few runners that looked like running wasn't really their primary sport.

Two loops, around the grass field and up and down a short sharp hill among the trees with a good long gravel stretch to unleash your kick to the finish.

Around 250 runners, I went off hard and quickly settled in as normal, going back and forth with the same couple of runners. Getting passed on the uphill and passing them on the downhill. Used another runner to drag myself towards a stronger finish than if I'd been on my own for sure.
Then as I walked past the table at the finish they handed me a medal! Second place in my age group!

Woo-hoo, my first medal in NY. I knew I needed a combination of a good run and good luck as I came in 23rd overall! 26.01, 6.31 pace, also 1 min 30 behind the 1st place 40 year old which I was glad to see, nothing worse than if the guy that finished in the same time as me was the other 40+ runner.

So next Sunday is the Fifth Avenue Mile where my biggest concern is what kind of warm up I do for that??
Then Heather deferred her entry to the Marine Core Marathon until 2014 so we're not going to bother going down to DC for my 10K. That was what I was training for, along with an upcoming trail half marathon. So instead I paid way too much to enter the Rock and Roll 10K in Prospect Park in October so as not to make the training totally worthless as I attempt to get a PB in a 10K this year too.

That's more like it!

Another Saturday morning 5K in Prospect Park, The Central Park Founders 5K in tribute to the guy that had founded the Central Park Track Club.

After another uncomfortable couple of weeks, the humidity finally broke on Wednesday night. I did a speed session of sorts on Thursday morning and felt amazing... the fresh air and lack of humidity was I'm guessing like the feeling you'd get if you've been away training at altitude and come back down to sea level so I was hoping for a better time than the last one two weeks ago.
A slightly later start time of 9am, and although the sun was out and it was hot under the sun, the lack of humidity was noticeable and probably 90% of the course in in shade.

When I got to the start line it turned out a tree had fallen down and hit someone earlier on so the start was delayed 30 minutes. Unfortunate for the guy, who was apparently alright and bad news for us as it meant I had to pass the time by sitting on a bench for 20 minutes meditating, watching the swans etc.

The smaller 389 finisher field start

© 2013 SmugMug, Inc.

A woman who is maybe connected to the CPTC took some photos and I popped up in a couple.

Then when we lined up at the start we were informed that because the start had to be moved up a few hundred metres they didn't have time to realign the mile markers so they would be out. Plus the wrist strap on my Polar heart rate monitor had snapped on Thursday. So no mile splits and no heart rate! I don't really use the heart rate on a 5K race but it's nice to see the averages etc afterwards.
So basically I just ran! First time in ages I've not looked at my watch or anything and just ran on feeling, knowing how fast I can hold for a 5K while knowing the course obviously helped.

© 2013 SmugMug, Inc.

I was pleasantly surprised to finish in 19.14 (6.12 mile pace, 62nd/389), about 26 seconds slower than my best time from May's month of supreme fitness, ha ha.

Then a jog up to the farmer's market where I picked up a raspberry danish, a cherry pie pocket, a sweet onion and goat cheese focaccia and some carrot cake.

The week that was

Getting into my shipping and receiving job. Although I need to get into it fast so I can help train a couple of other people! None of the managers even know how to do a lot of the stuff so when I take a day off and the other part-time guy isn't on there is a crap load of things to do the next day I'm in!

I switched my days around so we could go to a concert on Thursday night. During the summer Prospect Park has a lot of free performances and a handful of benefit shows to do with Celebrate Brooklyn so we purchased tickets for one of the benefit shows to see the Scottish group Belle & Sebastian.

A different type of show than normal. There was the regular standing room up front if you were eager but the majority of people take rugs and sit on the grassy slopes, at least until the show starts. They have a lot of different food and drink on sale plus an Etsy store, which if you know what Etsy is, tells you the type of crowd it was catering too.
So we took along our new camp chairs and a little bag of homemade food and juice, gotta save our money for all the future gig tickets we've bought recently.

One of the highlights was getting a lot of folk out of the crowd to dance on stage for a couple of songs, really funny to watch.

Friday night I was back in soccer action. A couple of teams I've played for needed some players for a cup night so I played 30min games with no break, the first outfield and the next two in goal!
During the second game it started raining and during the third it was torrential. It was so bad all the stuff in the bottom of my bag got soaked and I kept having to ring out my gloves and t-shirt.
When we went to the bar afterwards everyone took turns changing in the toilet into whatever slightly dryer clothes they had with them.

Then with my quads a little sore this morning, I sleepily got out of bed just after 7am for a 5K in Prospect Park. The baseball MLB All Star Game is back in New York so they had a tie-in with the race with proceeds to the Hurricane Sandy relief fund.

NYRR

It was "only" 69 degrees but the humidity was apparently 93%, I say apparently but it was high as the sweat was running down my forehead.
I am starting another training programme for some other races but it's proving difficult in the heat. Steady runs are fine but trying to do any ind of speedwork is real hard. I tried running before work on Tuesday but midday is not a good time to run, no shit, and I was dead on my feet.
So with the lack of training and the humidity I was a whole two minutes slower than back in May and even a minute slower than June's 5K. I know I did a tonne of training in the Spring, so much so that my pace was faster for 13M in May than it was for 3M today!

Just seen tonight's news and the weather forecast is for temperatures in the 90's all next week, "and it'll feel like over 100".... great :-(