RFTC: NYC

As the Summer winds down, I have found myself running out of steam with my running. I'm bored, sick of heat, sick of my routine, discouraged by lack of progress, feeling the need to rebel, etc. So, I haven't run as much in the past couple of weeks as I'm supposed to. Still, I signed up for the Race for the Cure (5K) race because it's a great event and I had told Luminita that I would do it. This race, like the Circle of Friends race we participated in, in June is one of those special running events where you can't help but be inspired. They are also both great events for runners and walkers of all abilities because women come out of the woodwork to participate, so there are all shapes, sizes, ethnicities and ages hoofing it through the course.

Anyway, Luminita and I met up at the Kew Gardens train station at the ungodly hour of 7:30 on Sunday morning. We made our way into Manhattan and up to the Upper Westside where we hoped to hook up with Harriet. It was a beautiful, beautiful day in NYC, so it was a pleasure to just mill around and soak up the atmosphere and catch onto to some of the race excitement as all the various groups started to gear up. We unfortunately never ran into Harriet, so we decided to make our way to the starting line as the time for the race start drew near. I was disappointed because Harriet is great at pacing a nice, steady & slow pace and I had hoped to count on her, especially as Luminita had decided that she wanted to try running. I knew that Harriet would be able to pace us steady enough for us all to finish comfortably. Luminita is in good shape, but is not a runner, so I wanted to make sure she had a good experience and I am not the best pacer in the World. Anyway, no Harriet, so we lined up without her. Once we were on our way I paced us at a very slow, conversational run. Really a jog. I figured, 'let's run the first mile and then we'll see.' I wanted Lum to be able to say she that had run a mile, at least. So it was comfortable, and the course not too bad. Up Central Park West. Into the Park, down a hill and then up one of the Westside hills that wasn't too bad since we hadn't run the rolling hills that come before it (usually it is the last in a series of rolling hills down the West Drive of the Park). We hit the 1 mile point somewhere in the sweeping downhill following this. I suggested that we keep running since we were on a downhill and Lum agreed. We finished the down hill and started a short uphill to a turn across the 72nd Street Traverse. I mentioned to Lum that we could take a walk break if she wanted, but she said that, no, she was fine, let's keep going (drat! I thought to myself that I could use a walk break, but okay let's keep going then). Across the 72nd Street Traverse, up the hill past the Bethesda Fountain, then a turn South on the East Park Drive and up another hill. I knew that the rest of the race course involved a series of rolling hills, so I tried to pace accordingly, keeping steady on the uphills and recovering on the downhills enough so that we would be ready for the next uphill, while also dealing with "cardic creep" as the cumulative effect of the race effort began to wear on us. I reined myself in on every uphill as I have a tendency to speed up on the hills and then tried to allow gravity to do most of the work on the downhills. We reached the 2nd Mile marker and I asked Lum if she needed a walk-break now and she said, no, she was fine (shit! I thought to myself, I really could use one! Not. Going. To. Give. In.) So we keep going, through all little rolling hills and around the South end of the Park, and we then started the last uphill up the West Drive and past Tavern on the Green and up on to the Finish (just past the NYC Marathon finish line). This was really hard now, the hill on this finish always, always, always kills me. We stayed steady and strong and finished side-by-side. Incredible. Luminita has never really run any distance before and she managed to run 3.1 miles without walking one single step. Hell, I managed to run 3.1 miles without walking one single step. I can't remember when the last time was that I was able to do this. Probably years ago. I'm also proud that I was able to set a reasonable pace that got us through the race. Once we finished, we stuck around the finish line for a while enjoying the beautiful day in the Park and basking in our accomplishment, while also looking for Harriet. We never did find her here either, so we decided finally to make our way home.

So, it was a great day and a great event and a perfect way to cap off the Summer. I was very happy to be able to share the race with Luminita as this is just the sort of event that is greatly enhanced by participating with others. I now need to ramp my running program back up. I can run 3 miles without walking after all, I need to start building on that. Heh.