rr: colon cancer challenge 15k

i went to bed last night after resetting our clocks ahead an hour - and already missed those 60 minutes as my head hit the pillow! during the night i woke up a couple of times and listened to the wind howl outside. the next morning the roads were covered with fallen branches - and the wind still hadn't abated. i watch wabc t.v. news as i got ready for the race and was pleasantly surprised to see the weatherman, reporting from central park, talk up the colon cancer challenge events (walk, 4 miler, and 15k). the forecast of 40 mph wind gusts wasn't that much fun.

my friends arrived just before nine. don, rob, and emmy (ctmarathoner) each came in from connecticut, and we carpooled into the city together. i mistakenly thought the race finished at the 102nd street transverse. so we didn't park as close to the start at 68th street as we could have - hoping to cut down the walk back to the car after the race. midway thru the race i realized i t ended on 72nd street -oops! i had a couple of those moments today!

as we walked over to central park we called greg (mysolitude), who was waiting for us at the 72nd street entrance with his eldest daughter. we met up there and headed over to baggage check. that's when i had another one of those little lapses - a pair, actually. in my rush to get over to the start, we had less than 1o minutes, i forgot to put my bib number on my checked bag. a quick u-turn, back to baggage, i used a pin from my bib to secure it, and then i headed back to the start. then, as emmy, don and i jogged over there, i realize i had forgotten my buff - but it was too late to go back for that now.

this was a club points race and there were hundreds of runners in team singlets. that's when it hit me that i wasn't wearing my wtc team singlet! this trend was starting to worry me! emmy and i ran the first mile together. in one of those strange but true moments, after a cptc runner passed me, i said to emmy, "what ever happened to sue... haven't seen her in a long time." and before we reached the end of mile 1, we see her in the crowd and say hello!

for the record, here are my race splits (rounded):

1. 7:22
2. 6:28 13:50
3. 7:37 21:27
4. 6:11 27:37
5. 8:01 35:39
6. 7:26 43:05
7. 7:07 50:12
8. 7:30 57:42
9. 7:15 1:04:56
0.3 2:17 1:07:14

7:13 pace per mile

after the first mile, emmy and i traded places for the next few miles. in mile 3 we caught up to tom, the former trrc president. we took turns congratulating him on winning his age group at the nyrr awards dinner last thursday night. then, in a serious tactical mistake, i pushed the 4 mile too aggressively with a 6:11 - only to give it back in mile 5 with an 8:01. that was way too much work for an average 7:06 pace for those 2 miles!

i got back into a my groove with a conservative 7:26 in mile 6. the 43:05 was barely faster than my thursday night 6 miler - that tactical error and cat hill had taken a toll. i tried to rally back with a 7:07 mile 7, but the wind gusts across the 102nd street transverse and the west side hills gave me a 7:30 mile 8. finished with the west side hills, i pushed the last mile, but only got it down to a 7:15. i finished in 1:07:14, a 7:13 pace. that was, somewhat eerily, 4 seconds slower - but right in line with what i thought my race time would be yesterday morning - at the 9 mile split of my 10 miler!

waiting at the finish was emmy, ready with that classic line, "what took you so long?" that made me laugh! no tactical errors for her as she finished strong in 1:05:40, a 7:05 pace. that's an age-graded performance of 78:30! after watching a few more friends finish, i headed over to baggage to get my camera. after picking up some bagels and apples, we slowly started to regroup next to the results board. greg, his daughter, rob, emmy and me - would head over to baggage to get don.

in another one of those strange but true moments, i was digging out of my bag a slip of paper with staci's (divaleh) phone number - emmy already had her cell phone out - and then staci appeared out of the crowd! we weren't able to call her before the race since we had fallen behind schedule as a result of the parking logistics. jill (a wtc member) and tom also joined us for a little while before we headed home.

it turned out that not only did jill win her age group (and was 7th female overall) - but greg's daughter also won her age group! what an outstanding performance for her first nyrrc race! before we got in the car for the drive home, we ducked into a starbucks to get warm and have some hot chocolates. also another good excuse to continue socializing!

when i got home that afternoon, i went back out for 6 more miles (45:16/7:33 pace) to end the week with 61.3 miles. next up: wurtsboro mountain 30k!

check out greg's rr