My favorite weekends are the ones that involve races and brunch. Lucky for me, that's been the general formula for my past two weekends.
On January 9 there was an early wake-up and a pre-race breakfast of plain Fage 0% Greek yogurt. I'm still experimenting with the pre-race fuel that works best for me and this seemed to work pretty well - my stomach still bothered me a little bit mid and post-race, but not as bad as usual.
We jogged over to the starting line and got there right on time. Not a lot of standing around waiting which is always nice. Despite the fact that it was January - I was racing in shorts! By the end of the race, my legs were slightly numb, but overall I was a good temperature with my buff and gloves.
The Joe Kleinerman 10K was a full loop of Central Park meaning we had the joy of running up "Harlem Hill" early on. Around the top of the hill, I found a girl who seemed to be running around the same pace as me and decided to pace myself off of her. She also happened to be wearing a "Rise" t-shirt - a running group in NYC that has a friendly rivalry with November Project. Stayed on her heels helped me stay steady through the first 4 miles. Once we made it to Columbus Circle and the east side of the park I passed her and picked up the pace a little bit.
My splits were:
7:28
7:41
7:15
7:26
7:41
7:17
Negative splitting is NOT my specialty - and with a hilly course I have an even bigger problem pacing myself. Overall, I was happy with the result, though it was nowhere near my 10K PR. I placed 34 in my age group but the best part was feeling like I was back in my running groove by waking up on Saturday, running in Central Park, and eating a delicious breakfast.
Peter and I cooked eggs with veggies along with avocado toast and fresh pineapple. Yummo!
This Saturday Peter and I had ANOTHER race - and this one was one we fought tooth and nail to get into! Ok, we didn't really fight for a spot but we DID have to set multiple alarms and go through some stressful webpage refreshing to get into this super popular race on Long Island.
We left Friday night for Long Island and myself and our friend Emma stayed at Peter's parents house. We fueled with some homemade ziti before passing out pretty early.
Pre-race fuel on Saturday morning was a whole wheat mini bagel with peanut butter and sliced banana. Again, not a perfect stomach, but much more bearable than some other races.
The weather held up pretty well and we didn't get the downpours we had anticipated - but it was windy and brisk and it did drizzle on us quite a bit during the race.
The 10 Mile Run to the Bluepoint Brewery is put on by the Greater Long Island Running Club (GLIRC) and the Sayville Running Company. It's such a well-organized race (minus the clusterfuck that was the registration process) and this was my second year running it.
Pre-Race
There was a sufficient number of porta-potties and there were lots of wonderfully warm heat lamps in the tents. Bib pick-up/t-shirt pick-up was smooth as was bag drop off. Though the start was a little delayed, there was really nothing to complain about. We semi-joked about the fact that the shirts were cotton, but since lounging in it the rest of the day, I can handle the cotton since it's super soft and comfy. And the logo was pretty sweet.
The Race
I love this course. Love love love. It's through a very residential area and is as flat as you could hope for. My favorite part is that there are lots of turns - usually that would bother me, but the way this is set up, each time you turn you have a chance t settle into a new straightaway. I felt that each street we ran down was a fresh start, a new road to tackle, and I was able to take the race step by step instead of getting too ahead of myself.
There were porta-potties on the course as well as water stations and though there weren't very many people out cheering, the ones that were there were enthusiastic and friendly. The course was never over crowded but you were always surrounded by other runners to keep you pushing.
The gray rainy skies detracted from the water-front views, but I still knew it was there!
I was hoping to run around an 8:00 pace and with Peter's steady pacing (I don't get why I'm so incapable of running a steady pace) we finished in 1:18:39 for a 7:57 pace. And cheers to negative splitting!
Kind of tempted to buy this one...
Post-Race
This is why this race is so popular - free Bluepoint Brewery beer for a solid 2+ hours after the race with an unbelievable spread of post-race eats. Did I mention a phenomenal cover bad?
The free beer isn't just "here, we have this one light beer on tap that you can have in a little plastic cup." It's - "Here, we have a wide variety of delicious craft beer on tap and in 16 oz. cans." The food isn't, "here have a bagel and a banana" its, "Here are some heroes and coffee cake and donuts and BAKED ZITI!"
The bag check area had a changing room where runners could get out of their wet clothes and bundle up which was nice.
We had a ton of fun and stayed until noon before heading back to the city.
I finished 4 minutes faster than last years race which was exciting! (2015 I ran the same race in 1:22:06).
