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!

Return to Bear Mountain

The North Face Endurance Challenge Half Marathon at Bear Mountain (what a mouthful) was my main goal for the first half of the year.
I had felt really strong in the last couple of weeks leading up to Sunday's race especially on easy runs but was unsure how close I would get to last year's 1hour 51mins (6th place) as I knew I ran hard and remembered that I had finished really strong last May.

Again, we hired a car for the day and set off at 5am. A little bit delayed as we had to navigate some road closures due to Sunday also being the 5 Borough Bike Ride where thousands of cyclists get to ride on closed roads. Luckily we were off before they got going.
The weather forecast was dry and overcast but with the threat of rain later on that afternoon. In the end it was perfect, slightly cool at the 8am start but with the sun breaking out towards the end. It was actually the hardcore rain we had two days before (apparently Wednesday was the 10th wettest April day ever in Manhattan) that changed the course... for the better.

This was bone dry last year!

On the very first climb into the woods within half a mile we encountered a big pile of mud across the path and then a slightly rocky uphill patch that had water streaming down it. I realised it was going to be a lot wetter than before and immediately I assumed I was going to be slower because of that.

fresh and clean

I went off quite fast and thought there must've have been about 10 people up ahead and then like last year within 3 miles it settled down to where I ended up following the same guy for the next 7 miles with nobody really behind me. The other difference from last year was that around the 3 mile mark I decided to stop at the side for a pee! It had bothered me since about 400m into the race, I could've carried on but it was bugging me mentally, ha ha. You think a lot about different stuff during a half marathon. That guy passed me while I stopped and it took me the next 7 miles to finally catch him and pass him. And just like last year, it kept me going trying to keep him in sight so I didn't have to try so hard to spot the course markings.

I didn't think I'd really remember the course but occasionally I'd remember bits as I got to them, I knew there was a long-ish climb after the 9M feed station and although there are no miles markers, when I did pass one saying 11M I knew that was incorrect based on how long I'd been running for, more like 10M!

There were a few tiny stream crossings, plenty of mud patches and a lot of running water on the rocky downhill stretches. In the last couple of miles you meet up with the 10K race runners and I looked forward to this as I knew I'd get that same boost as last year plus knowing it was the home stretch meant I felt I was flying! I seen the photographer positioned right after a mud bath and as I stormed through it I hoped he'd get some good photos of me, and he did!

splish

splash

dash

I hadn't really looked at my watch for a while, just in case I tripped! I only really looked at a handful of times, just to get an idea of where the water stop would be as I planned to take a gel and then just to know there was 20 odd minutes left to go.

300m from the finish!

I came into the finish, crossed the line and then was extremely pleased to see that I'd crushed last year's time by over 2 minutes, 1 hour 48min 52secs.

They have timing mats at 2.6M and 8.3M so afterwards I seen that I was actually about 35 secs slower to the 2.6M and 8.3M marks this time, so I must have picked up all that time towards the end.

I finished in 5th position out of the 677 finishers and as the overall 3rd place prize was taken by a 42 year old I got 1st place in the 40-44 category! Incidentally I was only 9 secs behind 4th, damn that pee stop. Age group prizes weren't up to much though, a water bottle, some gels and a smartwool sticker. The post-race food they offer is really good though as is the technical race t-shirt and Smartwool socks you get.

I scoped out some pancake place in New Jersey that looked like it was in an industrial park just off the Palisades Highway on our way home but despite the look it was an old school diner and the strawberry banana pancakes I had were just what I needed.

Then of course, we used our rental car to take all our winter clothing to our storage unit, switched it for the remaining summer clothing, a little active recovery doesn't hurt..... and then went for pizza.

So I was well pleased indeed with that result. An easy week this week although a couple of weeks ago I did enter a 10K for this coming Saturday, ha ha. It's around Roosevelt Island, so it was more the different location that encouraged me to do it, plus it's an NYCRuns event, so a little cheaper and lower key than a NYRR event... AND it's directly off the F train and that's what matters!

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.

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.

Greenwood Cemetery

Heather & I live one street over from Greenwood Cemetery. Nearly 500 acres (and over 1/2 million graves) that I had still to explore! We booked a 2 hour tour on their trolley bus and joined about a dozen people on a grey day to see and hear about some of the famous people buried there and learn more about how it's a historical site in relation to the American Civil War and the Battle of Brooklyn.

General Custer posed for this monument on Battle Hill, the tallest point in Brooklyn!

The statue of Minerva had some historical significance in the way it was planned and positioned to be raising her hand right across to the Statue of Liberty. A monument to a battle that the Americans lost and the impressive tour guide told us is not part of school history as they don't teach kids about battles the US lost.

They run three tours tours that visit different graves with only the Battle Hill repeated so I would definitely go again or at least have a walk through with Heather at some point in the near future.
Some of the famous graves we visited, with accompanying story, included Leonard Bernstein, Henry Chadwick (baseball founder), Samuel Morse, the Tiffany family, Henry Steinway and Bill the Butcher & Boss Tweed (I need to rewatch Gangs of New York).

Some of the architecture of the headstones and tombs was amazing.

Inventor of the hot dog!

As we got off the bus to see the above one I walked right into this one:

Creepy

One of the best ones was saved to last, amazing detail.

So probably not somewhere that most visitors to New York think of going considering even setting foot in Brooklyn is something that is relatively new to most tourists but a definite recommendation for any New York City trip!

Two thumbs up.

Statue of Liberty

One of the things I've never done is the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tour. We booked tickets for a day when the weather was supposed to be a bit warmer and joined the airport style security line to board the boat.

30-40 mins before getting on the boat!

Of course it was barely 12 degrees but the sunshine and staring upwards meant a little forehead sunburn the next morning!

Mysterious army chinooks accompanying two helicopters

The short boat ride is cool. You get a good view of Manhattan and Ellis Island and obviously the statue gets larger the closer you get. I've only really seen it from so far away.

The boats went to Ellis Island every 20 mins so you were free to wander the small island and spend some time there. Although the small food court reminded me of a crowded American High School cafeteria what with all the visiting tour groups so we gave that a miss.

We only had the tickets up to the mid level pedestal as the newly reopened crown tickets are sold out until late May. But the best view is supposed to be form there anyway.

Empire State building compared to the new 1WTC

How bout deez nutz?

Small Anne & Murd

The small museum in the base was actually really interesting with how it was constructed and shipped over from France. They had a few letters from immigrants written mainly on the 100 year birthday saying how it was the first thing they saw entering the harbour area with all its references to freedom etc.

We did a 30 min guided tour of Ellis Island. Some interesting stuff and you had to use your imagination to picture the lines of immigrants and what they had to go through on arrival to this new country, hoping they would pass the medicals and tests.

There wasn't too much else to see as Hurricane Sandy wiped out all their proper building climate control so they had to move most of their exhibits out.

After nearly 5 hours of on the go time we just passed through the Wall Street area then headed back into Brooklyn for some excellent BBQ food.

Mmmm, smokey

Being a tourist again

Mum and dad finally got round to visiting so I booked the whole 9 days off work and set about being their tour guide for the trip. This meant visiting a lot of places I've been before but I also got to tour a couple of places I've never been to.

Just walking around the different neighbourhoods is so much a part of any visit to New York but it's something you can't really get tired of as you always see something new or some little bit of graffiti or art or humour that someone has added.... such as this little hot dog under a tree.

I put up with the walk down a crowded 5th Avenue, Rockefeller centre and through the nightmare that is Times Square, etc; those are places no local wants to visit at any time in order to give them the full New York City visit.

Unfortunately there were a few rainy days mixed in with the Spring sunshine. It had been so cold and dry before that I said they must have brought the rain with them!

Some of the 260+ Easter Faberge egg scupltures that were dotted around the city. They must have been well hidden as we only spotted about 6 of them!

"The Kelpies" sculpture by a Scottish artist in Bryant Park as part of Tartan Week here in New York.

Madison Square Park had these water towers that when you stood underneath and looked up it had the effect of being a lot taller inside with this neon lighting.