8.Races in February & March 2024

Sunday, February 25, 2024: NYCRuns Central Park 5K & Half Marathon

It was an 8 a.m. start which meant that I had to leave the house at 6 a.m. I got to the 102nd Street Transverse close to 7:30 a.m.  so I picked up my shirt and did bag check. Then walked over to W 90th Street, the starting line for the 5K. I did some light stretches as I entered the corrals and as it got closer to the start time, they encouraged everyone to move up. Now, I consider myself in the 9 min/mi to 10 min/mi for these races but we moved up all the way to where I saw the 7 min/mi sign. LOL.

It was a cold 5K and for the first time, my hands were cold! Normally my hands warm up after a mile but today, they didn't! I kept going and didn't stop for water at any point. At no point in the race did I feel that anyone was in my way or running too slow or anything. Either people were passing me or I was passing them! My focus was there throughout the race.  One thing I did notice while running was my pace, at one point I saw that I was averaging 8 min/mi! Mile 1. That's when I thought it was highly possible to PR. I think at Mile 2, I saw the timer at around 17. When I saw the corrals near the end, I was excited. It was almost over!  Then the finish line. The medal. The PR. Glory! My prior PR was at Governor's Island at the Haunted Island 5K on a very flat course, so to PR by nearly 2 minutes, having Cat hill and part of the 3 Sisters hills, it's pretty cool!

I wore Team Osprey shirt, Mets headband, Tracksmith Base Layer, Under Armour Long sleeve shirt, and that was enough! I went into this race, knowing that I'd probably be the only 5K runner on Team Osprey running this race, but despite that, I will 100% wear the shirt with pride! I didn't wear the pom pom hat for one reason: my head heats up with knit hats on runs and with my short hair, my hair gets all funny, so I decided to tie it into a very short ponytail and wear the Mets headband so that I have some cool air up top! LOL. 

After my race, I walked outside of Central Park, got some dessert from Paris Baguette and a hot coffee, despite taking a bagel and apple from the post-race treats. I thought it'd be funny to take some photos with my medal given that it was a PR! Belvedere Castle, Hope sign, and midtown HQ buidling (work).  I'm very proud of my time! Never thought I'd run a sub-9 min/mi 5K race! 

Right before I got off my stop in Brooklyn, I took a photo inside the N train lol.  Oh, and the LS shirt, medal and bib is so Barbie and Ken! 

Below are official photos from Marathon Foto. I ended up buying the package because of my PR and since more photos became available that I liked. 

Sunday, March 3, 2024: NYRR washington heights Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5k

I dreaded this race since signing up for it because rumor was that there were a lot of hills. The verdict: it was not as bad as I thought! It turned out to be my 2nd fastest race at 28:48. 9:17 min/mi.  I am proud of my time because it's always challenging to run hills and the fact that I did not stop for water or at all, is a win in my book. 

Rock'N'Roll Series: Washington DC 5K on March 16, 2024

Let's start at the nation's capital to be the first of many races that I run OUTSIDE of NYC in 2024. I've been traveling solo since 2014 and at the time, my motivation to keep traveling was baseball stadium visits. Present day: my new motivation is running races. Last year, I signed up for my first ever, out of state race in Baltimore (and it was my 2nd ever race). I wanted to run a race without letting anyone know just because I didn't want advice, commentary or influence. I did that to know my true feelings and thoughts about running a race as it was my choice. That race set off the rest of the year's motivation to keep running 5K races, no matter where. So given that I've signed up for many NYRR races and a few NYCRuns races this year, I knew that I'd want to race again outside NYC. It's fun to not be familiar with the route. It's fun to run with strangers. It's fun to travel and race!

I left my hotel at 6:45 a.m. knowing that walking over there to the start would be about 20 minutes. It was still a bit dark out and a bit brisk. I did not do bag check so I did not wear a jacket. By the time I reached the starting line, the sun rose and I was ready. Being unfamiliar with the route, even though I have already been in DC for a couple days, I did not anticipate any hills (they were not that bad). I was assigned to Corral 1 for some reason. I know that half marathoners who are also doing the 5K gets that designation of Corral 1. I looked my name up and another Angela Lee was running just the half! Perhaps that is why I was assigned Corral 1! For me, the streets were wide enough that no one would be elbowing each other. In fact, when I started the race, I think I passed a lot of people who were in front of me! The funny thing about this route is that on mile 1.5 or so, it was so up north that it was 2 or 3 blocks from my hotel! Too bad the start and finish wasn't there lol. Knowing the turnaround point, I thought to myself, yay, I'm halfway done! Of course, the 2nd half was easier because it was just in reverse of what I've done the first half. When we rounded the corner and I saw the gates for which held the corrals, I knew I was going to fly to the finish. I spread my wings and flew like a bird. I saw the photographers and cameras. I was ready to land! That was the best part of the race, the ending because about an hour or so later, I had found out that I had negative splits on this race! That means, that for each interval of a mile, I have ran faster until the end! Not only that---this was back to back from my last race in Washington Heights! I thought that was HARD to do especially on that hilly race.  Anyway, this was a fun race. After my race, I stuck around to listen to the band, Uncle Jesse, who performed 90s and 2000s songs on the stage closest to the finish line. I even sang along to some of the pop classics. When the band took a break, I decided to leave and head back to the hotel to start my last full day in DC.