Favorite Time of Year

I spent a gorgeous morning in Central Park yesterday, couldn't have asked for better weather. I was cursing myself at 5:30 when I had to force myself out of bed after about four hours of sleep, but I didn't really mind too much once I was awake and showered and looking ahead to the day before me. Some storms had blown through the day before leaving the air clean and crisp, with that perfect Autumn sparkliness that seems to be unique to the North East. Walking Lola at around 6:00 AM, it was still dark and a carload of guys passed me who were obviously driving home after a night out, they looked at me strangely standing there with my dog in my running clothes, and I looked at them with a shudder remembering the days (only a few short years ago) when I might have just been arriving home after an all-nighter. I was on a train headed to Manhattan while it was still dark, sipping a coffee and enjoying the quietness of the early hour. I felt oddly... content. Hmmmm, interesting.

I was up to Central Park by about 7:15 AM and milling around the packet pick-up for the race shivering a little bit in my shorts and running jacket. Since I was so early, I was able to enjoy seeing the event starting to come to life as more runners and volunteers arrived, as the sun rose and the volunteers continued to put the race site together. I leisurely sat on a bench by the Sheep Meadow until a race official squawked at us with a bullhorn to line up. With a couple of minutes to go before the start of the race, I finally pulled my running jacket off and tied it around my waist. After some short speeches, the horn blew and we were off. This was a short race, only 1.7 miles -- the lower Central Park loop. My one and only goal was to the run every step of the race (and not resort to walking at all). I figured that this should be easy since I ran every step of the 3.1 mile race I ran just a few weeks ago on a similar course -- this is half the distance, easy. Right? Well...

Because I had been to the race start early, I had lined up relatively early. And, although I seeded myself properly near the back, the race officials kept moving everyone up to fill in the empty spaces in the line-up. As a result, as we started, I found myself mixed in with people who were faster than I am. Lots of people passing me spurred me on to running a bit faster than I perhaps can handle right now. I also found myself almost hyperventilating, unable to really regulate my breathing, which added to my problems of pacing myself and caused me to be out of my comfort zone pretty much immediately. It was not pleasant. Still, I ran. And kept running. First it was looking for that one mile marker. Seemed to take for forever to come. We wound down through the 72nd Street Transverse, up the little hill between the Bethesda Fountain and the bandshell and past all the lines of half-marathon runners milling around waiting for their race which was due to start in about a half an hour. Then it was a turn South and up a rough hill and under the half-marathon starting line while those race participants cheered for us as we came by. Kept thinking, 'I must have gone a mile already, maybe they just aren't marking it because this is such a short race' and then I looked at my watch and saw that I had only been running eight minutes and change -- doh! Guess I haven't gone a mile yet afterall. Sheesh. Once I finally did find the one mile marker, a quick glance of my watch showed me at pace over a minute per mile faster than my pace at my last race (the RFTC 5K). Maybe this explained my discomfort so early in the race. Still, the race was short, so the only thing to do was to just keep running. It was hard. Every step had me wanting to walk, I had a huge mental struggle with myself not to give in at each second. I continued to win this war with myself and pushed and pushed myself onward. I hoped to gain a little recovery on the bit of downhill before hitting the Southern part of the loop, but downhill didn't seem to make much difference to me on this day. I just had to mentally grit my teeth and keep going. Finally the final turn up the West Side came and the long hill up past the Tavern on the Green and to the finish line. I think it's about a quarter of a mile (give or take) from the turn around the bottom of the loop to the Finish. So close, yet so far. I couldn't walk now, I made it this far, I couldn't do it, even though there was a crappy hill to be run between me and the finish line. I had nothing left, I was running, but there was no sprint left at all. I felt nausea rising, a new problem for me, so I added the struggle not to boot to the struggle to keep running. Up that hill, argh! Why does it always seem so long??? And I finally stumbled over the finish line, having run every step of the course as was my goal on this day. I weaved for the chip removal station and held my shaking leg on the step for removal barely able to stand upright. Pretty pathetic to be so wiped out by a 1.7 mile race! Shortly afterwards Ellen appeared beside me, she had started the race farther back in the queue and had run most of it with me in view ahead.

Once I was able to have some water and a little bit of a walk, I felt completely recovered. It's amazing how quickly you snap back. We made our way over to the Norwegian Festival that was being held in tandem with the races where we were able to enjoy a NY bagel with fresh smoked salmon and Norwegian cream cheese. There were also waffles available for those who wished to indulge (I drew the line here as we had plans for lunch later). Shortly after settling on a bench with our bagels, Harriet joined us. She had walked the race and so finished a bit behind. We had plenty of time to enjoy the beautiful morning in Central Park as Ken was running the half-marathon. At one point we made our way over to part of the race course and was able to cheer for Ken as he passed by. We also had time to watch the little kids' races and meet up with our friends, Jorge and Silvia,whose son, Lukas, was running in the 3-year old's race. We finally went back to the Finish Line by the Sheep Meadow to watch the half-marathon runners finish and to wait for Ken. Ken finished faster than his goal, so everyone ended up having good races. From there we had a nice leisurely stroll through the bridle paths of Central Park, finally exiting on West 81st Street and then over to Amsterdam Avenue to enjoy some BBQ ribs and pitchers of beer outside in the sunshine.

I just love this time of year!