My first trophy!

Yesterday I ran a low key, but totally awesome, race.  It was a 5k in Prospect Park that an organization called Music That Heals puts on every year.  A few weeks ago, I was researching smaller, shorter races in the NYC area and came across this one.  As a former violinist, this is a cause that I think is so important and noble.  The overview of this organization is, "MUSIC THAT HEALS provides musical entertainment to seriously ill children and adults."  While growing up, I played in nursing homes and hospitals more times than I can count. The 20 or 30 minutes that you spend performing for these ill and aging people can have a life changing impact on them (and also on you as a performer), and completely turn someone's day, week or month around.  It gives the ill a chance to take their mind off of being sick, to have something to look forward to and to hopefully put a smile on their faces.  Couple this with running (and a 10am start time!), and I'm in!  

Actually, I almost wasn't in.  After running 4 races the three weekends prior, I was tired, wanted to sleep in, and stayed out too late Saturday night (with a few glasses of wine). When I woke up Sunday morning, I really just wanted to snooze my alarm and crawl back under my covers, but knew that I'd be disappointed in myself if I didn't go, so dragged myself out of bed.  I hadn't picked out an outfit, hadn't thought about what I needed to bring with me for a morning in Brooklyn, and wasn't totally sure where I was going- I still had to pick up my race stuff before finding the start.  

This past week, my running shoes have been bruising the outside ankle of my right foot.  Like, I had an actual bruise the other day from my shoe.  As soon as I put my shoes on and was walking out of my apartment, my ankle started hurting.  I think part of the design on the outside of my shoe isn't flexible enough and rubs my ankle the wrong way.  I took inserts out of my shoes this past week, because they were slightly too short for the shoe and were sometimes hurting my toes.  I think this started causing the problem, because now my foot is lower so it's rubbing in a weird way. I spent most of the subway ride trying to bend that part of my shoe so it wouldn't rub and hurt. Not totally successful. Note to self: put inserts back in/buy longer inserts. And for once, could I just have an awesome, I feel amazing and nothing hurts, week of training?!

Anywayyyy....I got off the train at Grand Army Plaza and began warming up by running the mile to the church where registration was held.  My foot felt decent, but not great.  It was super easy to find registration, and it turns out that it was just a few blocks from the start.  Everything was well organized and easy to figure out.  The staff (and volunteers?) were all very friendly and helpful. A few minutes before 10am, there was a performance of the National Anthem by some people associated with Music That Heals, then we were all walked down to the start of the race.  The course was (almost) one loop of Prospect Park, with the hill just before mile 2.  As I said, this was a low key race, so we just lined up along a piece of duct tape on the road, and were off when they blew the horn.  There were no chips timing this race, so it was up to my Garmin and the clock at the finish line.

The course started on a downhill and I could see that two women were in front of me.  I was feeling good, but then again, I was running downhill. That's usually pretty easy.  By the time that the road flattened out, another woman passed me, so now I was in fourth. My foot and legs were actually feeling fine, and my first mile came out around 6:33 pace, I think (forgot to upload my run!).  Another woman passed me, then I finally passed one woman, so was still in fourth place. I began to feel like I was working really hard, but my Garmin was hovering around 7:20s. What?!  Why is running fast so hard?!  Then the hill came. And took forever.  I've honestly never thought much about this hill in the past, after running in Central Park for years, but yesterday it seemed to last forever.  Just when I thought it was over, I rounded a corner and saw more of it up ahead still.  Finally, I reached the top, and mile two, and knew that it would be an easy run to the finish.  However, I couldn't get my Garmin (or me rather....) to drop below 7:00 pace again.  I should have uploaded my run for exact times...but they weren't that impressive.  Around mile 2.5, a younger girl (found out later she's 16) passed me, to put me in 5th place.  At this point, I felt like I was losing some steam, so didn't have it in me to try to catch her.  The time on my Garmin at the finish was 21:30.

I finished 5th overall female, and 1st in my age group!  Later, "official" results were posted on the church wall and I'm pretty sure it said 21:16 for me.....but that's definitely not possible, unfortunately.  The clock said 21:27 as I was about to finish, so I'll stick with my Garmin on this one, which gives me a 1 second 5k PR!  I was hoping to run faster, but after a late night, wine and not much planning, I'll take it.  They haven't posted the online results, but from what I saw I was 22 overall, out of about 400 people.

I even got a (my first) trophy and a $15 gift card for a RoadID at the awards ceremony! AWESOME!  

This was a great, fun race, for a cause I believe is really important, so it was a feel-good morning and a great way to end September!  I definitely hope to do this race again next year!