Run for Harold
I got back to racing today. 4 miles in Central Park.
I started the day in a really special way. After I parked my car, I changed out of my winter coat and into my running jacket and light running gloves. It didn't seem that bad at the time, so I decided to leave me coat in the car. It was at the exact moment that my alarm beeped and automatically locked my car, that I realized my keys were with my coat - inside the car. Sigh...
There was nothing I could do about it at that point, so I went over to the park. Today's race was one of the regularly scheduled Road Runner races. However, I was part of a little sub-event. Some friends of mine run a fairly popular website in my little circle, and their father was both a doctor and a marathoner. (Sound familiar?) Unfortunately, he was killed by a reckless driver while running several years ago. Since that time, his family has always put on the "Run for Harold" event as part of this race. While they do raise money for charity, the primary goal is to get people out and running - as their father would have wanted. It's really a nice idea.
The "team" met up just outside the park, and they distributed t-shirts. It was really amazing how many people came out on this freezing cold morning. Anyway, after a few group photos we all headed over to the start area.
(The person I gave my camera to barely caught me in the frame!)
Like usual these days, the race was packed. Over 5000 finishers. I squeezed in about 1000 spots back from the front. It said "5 min pace" or something ridiculous there, but it seemed right based on the crowd. Joan Rivers made a little speech, and invited everyone back to her place for coffee. Then Miss Teen USA made a little speech - but didn't invite people back to her place.
The race started, and it was jam packed as usual. I ran most of the race on the outside of the course, trying to stay away from people. I didn't weave too much, but I did run a little extra being on the outside all the time.
I pushed relatively hard in the beginning, and was actually pretty tired by a mile in. At that point, I didn't really let off, but I didn't rev it up either. Looking at my splits, I did kind of sped up a little. But I felt like I was kind of just going at the same pace - until the end. My old PR was 30:57, and pretty quickly I knew that this was going to get beaten.
Splits:
7:22
7:05
7:00
6:47
Total time 28:14, for a 7:03 pace. And a new PR. (With very pretty looking negative splits I might add.)
I hung around for a little bit to socialize and freeze my butt off. I'd say it wasn't worth it, but someone did give me the idea to call roadside assistance. I was planning on taking a train both ways, and in the end I called GEICO and had it open in less than an hour. (I hadn't even finished my bagel and coffee.) So that wasn't too bad.
(Lou from "Pop-A-Lock".)
And so another PR gets smashed. I'm really looking forward to setting new PR's in the all short distances. Since I haven't set up a new training schedule, I'm not sure how many short races I'll be doing. But in the meantime, it's something to train for. I'm planning to keep up with the speedwork for now.
Final group shot of Team "Run for Harold". Pretty impressive, I think.
I started the day in a really special way. After I parked my car, I changed out of my winter coat and into my running jacket and light running gloves. It didn't seem that bad at the time, so I decided to leave me coat in the car. It was at the exact moment that my alarm beeped and automatically locked my car, that I realized my keys were with my coat - inside the car. Sigh...
There was nothing I could do about it at that point, so I went over to the park. Today's race was one of the regularly scheduled Road Runner races. However, I was part of a little sub-event. Some friends of mine run a fairly popular website in my little circle, and their father was both a doctor and a marathoner. (Sound familiar?) Unfortunately, he was killed by a reckless driver while running several years ago. Since that time, his family has always put on the "Run for Harold" event as part of this race. While they do raise money for charity, the primary goal is to get people out and running - as their father would have wanted. It's really a nice idea.
The "team" met up just outside the park, and they distributed t-shirts. It was really amazing how many people came out on this freezing cold morning. Anyway, after a few group photos we all headed over to the start area.
(The person I gave my camera to barely caught me in the frame!)
Like usual these days, the race was packed. Over 5000 finishers. I squeezed in about 1000 spots back from the front. It said "5 min pace" or something ridiculous there, but it seemed right based on the crowd. Joan Rivers made a little speech, and invited everyone back to her place for coffee. Then Miss Teen USA made a little speech - but didn't invite people back to her place.
The race started, and it was jam packed as usual. I ran most of the race on the outside of the course, trying to stay away from people. I didn't weave too much, but I did run a little extra being on the outside all the time.
I pushed relatively hard in the beginning, and was actually pretty tired by a mile in. At that point, I didn't really let off, but I didn't rev it up either. Looking at my splits, I did kind of sped up a little. But I felt like I was kind of just going at the same pace - until the end. My old PR was 30:57, and pretty quickly I knew that this was going to get beaten.
Splits:
7:22
7:05
7:00
6:47
Total time 28:14, for a 7:03 pace. And a new PR. (With very pretty looking negative splits I might add.)
I hung around for a little bit to socialize and freeze my butt off. I'd say it wasn't worth it, but someone did give me the idea to call roadside assistance. I was planning on taking a train both ways, and in the end I called GEICO and had it open in less than an hour. (I hadn't even finished my bagel and coffee.) So that wasn't too bad.
(Lou from "Pop-A-Lock".)
And so another PR gets smashed. I'm really looking forward to setting new PR's in the all short distances. Since I haven't set up a new training schedule, I'm not sure how many short races I'll be doing. But in the meantime, it's something to train for. I'm planning to keep up with the speedwork for now.
Final group shot of Team "Run for Harold". Pretty impressive, I think.
posted by Danny on Sunday, November 18, 2007
10 Comments:
wow, speedracer...that's awesome.
Way to go Danny!!
Now all your PR's are from 2007. That is pretty cool.
Congrats on the PR and the negative splits. Running can be so funny - you think you're not pushing yourself, but you end up running faster through the whole race! Awesome.
Great job on the race yesterday! You ran wicked fast.
The Lou picture is awesome!
7:03? Show off! ; )
I hope you gave Lou a tip. He was the speedracer for you.
Nice PR. You're knocking socks off ... and putting them back on in the cold.
Danny, you went and got fast!! :)
Congrats on the new PR!!
Isn't a horrible feeling when you realize you just locked your keys in your car!!!
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