7.Races in January 2024

NYRR Midnight Run on New Year's Eve at Central Park 4M

12.31.2023 into 1.1.2024: My first midnight run ever! 

To be completely honest, I have always hated New Year's Eve... I have my personal reasons that I won't divulge here, but this is the first time I spent it in the company of FRIENDS and on top of that, doing something productive at the start of the year. So one might say that it was the best new year's I've had...It kind of was. This definitely beats watching the stupid times square ball drop on TV and then straight to bed. However, I think this is a once and done type of race for me. 

While I was stretching next to the bandshell, I saw Tanya walking towards me. I never met Tanya before... but I knew her face from pictures! It was the Osprey hat that made her approach me, haha! After a chat with her, Tanya went off on her practice runs. As my friends and I headed towards the corrals, I saw Piera and David and said Hi! Piera then asked if I was meeting everyone at Corral E, and I said of course, yes! Then later we all met at Corral E, which is where we took a team photo.  Pictured: Piera, Donna, Tom, Tanya, Angela and Alex. This was my first time meeting Donna and Tom as well. Though I remember meeting Tom at the Ultramarathon... Yes, I have a good memory usually when I meet people. 

NYRR Joe Kleinerman 10K: Central Park

This was my first 10K race. The only time I ever ran 10K distance was on a Prospect Park run I did in November 2023 (non-race). I must say that days leading up to this 10K race, I was very nervous and didn't think I'd make it on time. The race started at 8am and traveling from Brooklyn on a weekend to 102nd street in Central Park meant that I had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. and leave my house no later than 6:00 a.m. I was wide awake at 4:30 and when I walked out the front door, I said to myself, it's OK if I don't do so well, it's my first 10K race. Weeks prior, I had wanted to set a goal for 1 hour to run this distance but my left shin was sore so my workouts and practice runs were cancelled and I ran shorter distances and eliminated the speed intervals. So...the fact that I ran this race and MET MY GOAL, I'm super proud of myself! 59:18 was the official time. I'm not going say that the 10K was all sunshine and rainbows. I have to stay honest to myself. I started out OK with Harlem Hill and the 3 Sisters Hills. But on one of the water breaks, I drank some water and after about 10 minutes, I felt a bit nauseous. I literally wanted to puke out all of the water I just drank.  So as I continued running on course, I was debating whether or not to stop and walk a part of the race. I think around Mile 4 or 5, around the east side of the reservoir, there was ONE annoying guy running and grunting, THAT MADE ME WANT TO VOMIT MORE. But it was when I ran faster away from all that noise that I suddenly found a burp coming up, LOL. The burps actually got rid of all the nausea and I was able to keep running. When I was around mile 5.2, I was excited. I was dreaming of this being OVER in 10 minutes or less. When 102nd Street was in sight, I saw 4 Osprey birds at the turn and I went towards my right and high five each and every one of them and sprinted really fast towards the finish line!

All Group Photos are courtesy of Lisa Hirsch.

NYRR: Manhattan 10K (Central Park)

February 4, 2024: For this 10K race, I was ready for it. So ready, that I set my alarm clock for 5am to wake up and 6am to leave the house. But the MTA had their own schedule and decided to slowly crawl its way to where I needed to be. I showed up at the corner of Central Park at around 7:35 a.m. and lightly jogged towards the bag check area to drop off my bag (saw some Osprey members (John Ellis was the only one I met before) on my way there haha), and then jogged towards the end of Corral C where the Team was meeting. Unfortunately, I got there too late and half the team had dispersed. For me, it's not a big deal, I'm just mad that the trains made me late and because of that,  I wasn't part of a big group picture (one of the biggest that I've seen despite the number of injuries on this race) but, at the very least, I did get to see them briefly. 

So when everyone went to their respective corrals, I was ready to run at Corral H. While I had started the race on the right side of the course, I somehow ended up on the left side only because I knew that Tanya was going to be on the runner's left side cheering us on. Most of the first 3 miles went fine until I reached Harlem Hill and I decided to walk briefly because I didn't want to tire myself out, but I knew I had to keep going, so I jogged lightly. I kept going through the 3 Sisters Hills and I even sped up on some downhills. But then around mile 5, something felt funny on my right calf. The calf muscle felt tingly and it was as if I was going to get a Charley's horse. At that point, I began to slow down, thinking that the tingles would return and it did, so I walked briefly again. Then went into jog mode. Knowing that the end was near, I had feared the worst, thinking that I'd limp to the finish line.  When I entered the part where the corrals ended, I felt my right calf tingle again, but this time, I felt part of my left calf compensating for the right leg. I ignored all the people behind me, sprinting ahead and kept my jog pace. As soon as I saw the finish line, I slowed down and walked the finish points and seconds later, I felt my leg at a standstill. It wasn't in pain, but it was like I couldn't bend it to walk forward and that was scary. About 30 seconds later, I was able to move my legs again, but I felt like I had to limp my way around to bag check and I gave up walking towards the post-race meetup spot. After bag check pickup, I walked south towards the end of the park and when I past by Mile 5, I looked to my left and saw a blue hat. It was Julie! A fellow Osprey who was walking the race due to injury, so I waited for her and shouted out to her and walked alongside her and chatted for a few minutes before exiting the park. 

So besides all the negative things that happened during this race, let me express the positive perspective. I PR'd on this race, just by 20 seconds, and it would have been even more had I not had my calf muscle incident. But such is life.  Inside I was very happy when I passed the 5K marker and I thought to myself that OH SHIT, I may actually PR this race! When I crossed that marker, I looked at my watch and smiled. I knew at that point that I was only halfway through, but the hard part (Harlem Hill) was over. In hindsight, I prefer running Harlem Hill FIRST to get that over with.  Another thing that I can be grateful for, is that 10K races have been under 1 hour so far for me. That's pretty darn cool.  Another shout out to Jungyon who was volunteering at the race, and she took photos of most of us! Tanya cheered and also took photos of us, shout out to her as well! It's great to have that type of support because it propels me forward. 

Me, mad at Mile 5. Me finding Julie around Mile 5, and taking a quick photo as she progresses to the end! Jungyon was able to capture me near her volunteer post!

The majority of these photos are taken by Jungyon and Tanya. So grateful for these lady birds to track us and take our in-flight photos!