van cortlandt track club summer xc series two person relay

tonight i ran the van cortlandt track club's two-person xc relay with emmy at van cortlandt park. it was my first time at a vctc summers xc series race! more often than not, i typically head over to new canaan for the waveny summer xc series. tonight was a fun change of pace.

despite the hot, humid conditions (which seemed practically cool by comparison to the heat wave temperatures of the two days) there was a huge turnout. some familar faces at the event: sal, joe, and judy, avi, and robert. despite arriving w/20+ minutes to spare, i didn't get our bibs until minutes before 7 (and the race kicked off 15 minutes late).

because of continuing construction, the two mile loop course was slightly altered. the first group went off in front of the tortoise and hare statue. the second group started 75 feet beyond that point (but finished where the first group started). the highlight of the course was cemetery hill. without the construction fencing, the course would have been similar to the nyrr henry isola 4 miler (a double loop of the 2 mile layout).

emmy took the first loop, ran a 15:32, and tagged me for my start. i ran a 6:58 first mile and a 7:36 second mile for a 14:33 split for the second loop. our combined time was 30:06, or a 7:32 pace for the combined 4 miles. not sure how we placed in the overall results because we couldn't stay for the awards. all in all, it was a great summer evening workout!