The Adventures of Cowboy Hazel

Wow, what a great way to come back to NYC! After two weeks of being away, enduring the difficulties of altitude and longing to be back running in the city, I finally got a chance to run in Central Park today — at 5:30 this morning with 2,000 other runners as part of the NYRR 50th Anniversary Run. Today’s race is very high on my list of all-time favorites. Both the crazy early start time and the steadily falling rain kept all but the most dedicated of runners away. There was an energy at the starting line that I haven’t felt in a really long time. In fact, that energy carried me to too quick of a start. I forgot my stopwatch in my bag so I don’t know the exact times, but I do know that I was running fast the first couple of miles. Then, right after the mile 3 marker, there was a downhill stretch and I was feeling great, so I began to just haul ass. I dramatically underestimated the hill coming back down the west side of the park, though, and it killed me. I completely ran out of gas and barely made it to the top. I recovered a bit, but miles 4 and 5 were considerably slower that then first 3. Still, I managed to finish in 33:49, which is a 6:45 per mile pace and is almost a minute better than my previous best 5 miler. I regret not pacing myself better during that stretch in the middle because I think I could have finished with an even better time if I had. But, all I can do is learn from yet another pacing mistake and try harder to not start these races so quick.

Getting down to the race was not nearly as fun as the race itself. I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:00 in the morning, threw on my running clothes, ate a PB&J, and headed out the door around 4:20. I jogged the half mile to Lex, but when I got down to the 6, the attendant announced that no trains would be running until 5:00 and that we had to go up to 125th and then come back down. That happened to me yesterday and it took forever so I decided to just jog over to 116th & Malcolm X and catch the 1 there. I get down into the station (by the way, this is the dirtiest subway station I have ever seen in my life — there were packs of rats roaming all over, not just on the tracks but on the platforms too) and see another runner waiting for the train. We start talking (Why is it that runners are so much friendlier than everyone else in the city?) and she tells me that she’s been waiting for a long time already and is about to give up and get a cab, then asks if I want to split one, but I have no cash and say no. She leaves and a train finally shows up, I take it down to 66th, then run from there to the baggage check (it’s pouring rain at this point), drop off my backpack and hurry into my corral right as they’re moving everyone up closer to the starting line. We’re packed in solid and I never even get a chance to stretch (I should have on the subway, but didn’t think of it.) Anyway, even though it took me over an hour, I did make it to the start in time (barely) so I feel relatively lucky. I would have been so bummed if I hadn’t made it.

All in all, it was a great morning. I was very glad that I dragged myself out of bed to go run in the rain. I always feel sluggish in these morning races, but I’m thinking that might be because I never run in the mornings. So, I am going to try doing more early morning training runs. I’m meeting up with another runner tomorrow at 5:45am. Two days of pre six o’clock runs back to back for Robert Reese, who would have thought it?