5.Races in November 2023

God's Love, We Deliver 4M (Central Park): November 19, 2023

If I remember correctly, in the early Fall 2023, when NYRR had this race open for registration, I signed up without hesitation and on one random Saturday asked volunteers at the Meatloaf Kitchen if they were running  this race again since last year they had asked me to join them (when I was not a runner).  I knew a few of them ran these races, so it was fun to meet up and run "together." 

Personally, I PR'd this 4-miler! 37:52! The only other 4 mile race was with NYCRuns (Walk the Talk) for which I ran 39:40, and that was 2 months ago, so about a 2 minute improvement!

Although I didn't run with team members of Team Osprey, I saw 2 Osprey on my route! McKenzie at Engineer's Gate and Alex near the finish!  Given that I became a member just 2 days ago, I recognized McKenzie's face even though I never met her, but remembering faces doesn't mean I remember names fast, so I wasn't able to shout out at her. Then when I neared towards the finish about 0.5 mile left, I saw Alex on my right (his volunteer post) and in hope he sees me flapping my wings, it caught his attention! He shouted my name and high fived me. Then moments before I crossed the finish line, I heard someone call "Angela!" and later I find out that it was Silvio who had shouted my name at the end.  

I started my race on Corral "I" and my fellow Meatloafers dispersed into their corrals and agreed to meet at the Bandshell when we finished. At the beginning, I felt like racing pass everyone by running right of "barricades" and surprisingly there were a lot of people walking within mile 1. So I dashed past them and kept going. Every water station, I truly wanted a sip of water, but decided not to stop.  Cat hill was a breeze... and as I inched north towards the 102nd street traverse, I had flashbacks from all my runs in Central Park. I truly did prepare for this race months ago and all my hard work paid off! Luckily Harlem Hill was not part of today's itinerary lol. But come January, it will be a B*tch to climb all the hills. But my plan is to practice each time I get to go to Central Park, so that once again, I'm not in for a treat. So after the turn south on 102nd Street, the 3 sisters hills became the new challenge. As people slowed down, I could not, and I had to once again run past anyone slower than me. It's kind of strange that I don't speed up that much when going downhill because I think I'm catching up on breathing that I pace myself downhill, whereas when I'm going uphill, I'm using all of my breaths, huffing and puffing. When the worst of the hills was over, I breathed a sigh of relief. The end was near. After my high five with Alex, I began to speed up my pace as I saw the finish line. Finish strong they said. And so I did my best with the damn sun in my face. 

So the one thing that bothered me post-race was my coughing, which happens if I'm not breathing correctly for the race and somehow I think the weather affects this. I need to figure out how to breathe better so that at the end of each race, I'm not coughing like I have covid or the flu. I swear, I don't. 

As for my legs, I felt that my legs were running my best the entire race! It's kind of incredible because since my speed workout 2 days ago, I had felt soreness on my right thigh and my left shin. But throughout the race, I was flying! 

Post-race, Silvio who lives somewhat close to CP, invited all of us to his apartment for post-race snacks/breakfast. It was super nice of him! It's also a rare opportunity for me to hang out with the volunteers as I always tend to skip the bar portion after both shifts at Meatloaf, so being "sociable" on my end is really hard at times, but I was open to the idea. 

What a fun day!

Turkey Trot 5M (Virtual): November 23, 2023

On Thanksgiving Day, I decided to run from Caesar's Bay along the Shore Rd pedestrian path to someplace past underneath the Verrazzano Bridge. I was due for speed intervals that day so I did just that and then also ended up running about 1 mile extra. This race was virtual, my first and last virtual race. LOL. While it's fun to wear a bib and receive a medal, it's just not the same. You're running alone and to be honest, it's my worst race pace yet. At the end of the day, I did run on Thanksgiving morning and got home to start my lasagna from scratch.