Saturday, January 7, 2012

NYRR Joe Kleinerman 10k

Wendy, my beloved sister in her NYC Marathon shirt!, at the start.

Today marked my very first 10K race ever and more importantly, the first 10k in the Year of the Run.  I've completed 2 other 10K distances but both were part of a triathlon and both were Ugly (with a capital U) -thank goodness for a new year.  I was beyond nervous about this race today - I hate running with people I know bc I'm just so slow.  I find it condescending when the people you started with are waiting for you at the finish line or God forbid, they come BACK to run with you.  I realize this is something I need to work on in therapy and that no one is judging me - just me judging me but that's a few years and many therapy sessions away from today.  Today was supposed to be a run with my sister (who did run), Pamela and Jenni but the last 2 had family obligations and had to back out at the last minute.  It went from a Girls Party 10k to just Wendy and me which took quite a bit of pressure off of me - albeit, self induced pressure.  I thought I would finish in 1:28 and was hoping beyond hope for a 1:15 finish.


We got to the park and I felt as ready as I could feel to run but still nervous.  I decided not to set my watch - I was originally going to run 6:00/walk 2:00.  Figured might as well just go and see what happens.  The first mile was way slow and mostly bc of the amount of people and not me.  The race was packed and it takes while to thin out to be able to actually move so I was pretty happy to go slow and walk up some of the first hills.  But then I got into my groove and sort of never got out of it.  That has NEVER happened to me.  My only complaint was that I forgot my gloves and while it was unseasonable warm in NYC today, it was still chilly enough that my hands were freezing the entire race.  On a sidenote: I own ONE, yes just one, shirt without thumbholes and I just happened to have picked that shirt to wear today.  Just my luck.  The course inside of Central Park is quite hilly but I didn't really notice.  I had no iPod and was alone the entire race.  I was able to listen to the gossip of those around me which might be one of my all time favorite things to do - got some tips on the course, heard about this one girls night out and a few other random things.  I walked very infrequently - mostly at the water stations and even when I walked it was never for that long.  I was never in any real pain and sort of felt like I could keep on going.  At the 4.5 mile mark, I saw Kevin and he jumped in to run with me for a mile.  It was so great to see him but for the first time ever in any race, I didn't need him or anyone.  I am normally desperately looking for someone I know to help get me to the finish line or say something inspirational - anything to help but today I was so fine on my own.  It's always great to see him but I didn't need it which was an amazing feeling!!!  Just kept trucking along on my run - he dropped off at mile 5.5 and then I kicked it up a notch.  I wanted to leave it all out there and give it every single thing I had left so I did except I made that decision a smidge too early!  Got to the 6 mile marker and thought I might not make the remaining .2 miles but just kept on going.  


Yours truly at the finish line!

I crossed the finish line and immediately stopped my watch - it said 1:08!  ONE HOUR & EIGHT MINUTES!  If I died right there I'd have died a happy person - I never thought I could run that "fast" - my Garmin put me at a 10:58/mile pace (the NYRR website has a slower pace so I'm going with my Garmin bc I can!).  What a great race, beautiful weather and a simply amazing way to kick off The Year of the Run - perhaps I could actually complete a 13.1....but for today I'm just going to bask in the glow of my speed =)


PS - please notice the negative splits - another HUGE first!

4 comments:

  1. Awesome first 10K! I was reading this and realized that I read that race name before. Sarah over at
    toddlerrunning.blogspot.com wrote a review about the same race. Do you know her? Just thought it was funny that two of my blogroll blogs wrote about the same race.

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  2. That is so funny - I just read hers too! The water was totally brown - I emailed her but I don't know her personally. Thank you for reading!

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  3. Those splits look awesome! That's exactly the type of race I want to run...a little slower and then building to an awesome finish. Great job and congrats on your first official 10k! Are you running any other NYRR races soon? I was thinking of doing one (or both) of the 4 milers in February. Let me know if you want to meet up!

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  4. Congratulations and great job on the negative splits!

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