race recap | The Accidentally Running Mama

Last night one of the local towns had their annual 5K Pizza run. I ran it last year with my sister. I really had no business running it last year as it was only 4 days after completing the NJ State Sprint Tri. I remember it being hard and walking, but I wnted to run it with my sister.

This year it was different!

This year there was no summer Tri and I’ve been running pretty regularly to say the least. This year I was going to run it with some friends. The hot and humid weather also took the night off which apparently never happens for the Pizza Run! There were so many woman from my MRTT group that we hardly fit in the picture. Some I knew. Many I didn’t know as the group has exploded these last couple of months in an awesome way.

I’ve got to say that this really is an amazing group of women. It is true that everyone has a story to tell. All this month our group has been featuring Bio’s of different Mama’s who wanted to share. It is amazing the inspirational stories that so many of these women have from obstacles that they have overcame to their sparkling personalities that shine through. I’m honored to be a part of this group of BAMR’s!

As far as the Pizza Run went, I again had no plan or expectations. I knew that I was going to try and run a good race, but I really didn’t plan to push it. It was going to be a fun run with a freind. After the group picture, everyone went their ways to the start line. Genine and I bobbed and weaved to fairly close to the start. This is a decently sized race with almost 2000 people running. There are no starting corals and where you start is an important factor in how your race will go.

Gun goes off and we are off. As always it is very hard not to go off full blast especially in an event like this. We actually did but I realized it right away and tried to reign us in. That being said, we still were hauling it. I felt good and we were keeping a good pace. I’m not sure at what point, but Genine encouraged me to just go ahead. As much as I wanted to run with her, I also wanted to really push it and see where it took me.

As far as the actual run went, I was very happy with it. Yes, I pushed it a bit; but I felt good. I’m guessing all those cut-downs are paying off! I felt strong and confident in my faster paces.

I shaved off a few minutes from last years time of 30:45. Yeah!

Then after catching our breath, it was time for some pizza because they don’t call it a pizza run for nothing!

I’m using Genine’s pizza post race picture today because she takes a much better one than me!

Can’t wait for next year as this race is getting more and more fun!

Do you race for food?

Another Weekend.

Another Race.

At least that is how it seems of late.

Even causing my 8 year old son to question me saying , “Another one? How many races are you doing and haven’t you already done enough to get into the NYCM?”

I agree. It does seem like it’s been a lot, but really I’m only on number 6 with 7 this coming weekend. Then taking summer off. Ok not, off; but off from NYRR events. This will leave me 2 in the fall to do which will get me not only into the NYCM, but also the NYC Half Marathon. Yeah!

Back to this past weekends event – The Oakley New York Mini 10K.

I thought the mini was odd in the name, because how do you have a “mini” 10K. Wouldn’t that just be a 5K then? I thought maybe it was a mini because it was an all women’s race (although if you look at the finish stats for some reason it lists 3 men finishers). I was wrong though. It is called a mini because it the first one was ran in 1972 with just 78 runners compared to this last event with 7,784 finishers. In 70’s fashion, this event was actually called the “Crazylegs Mini Marathon” due to the fashionable miniskirt at the time. Well ok then. I guess it’s good that I ended up wearing a cute mini running skirt over my running pants. If only I knew that I was paying homage to the first event.

So back to the event at hand. This was fun on so many levels. First, it’s a race and they are always fun especially when running with friends. Then there was the fact that it was my one friends, Geniine’s, first time running a 10K and running in the city. She likes to say that I talked her into, but I disagree. I know her well enough to know that she is not going to do something she doesn’t want to do. (so there:). That being said, I did make it relatively easy for her (not taking into account the running) by securing her a place in the clown car and making sure that she was in on the bib pick-up.

I think that this may have been the very first race that I have ever done where I actually got a great night sleep the night before. I was tired and went to bed at 11:00 sleeping soundly till the 5:00 AM alarm. I think I like getting a good night sleep the night before. I’m sure it was fluke, but I’ll take it. Even though Genine wasn’t picking me up till 6:00 and I had all my running gear together the night before, I still like the time in the morning. It gives me a chance to have my coffee, wake up, and not feel like I’m rushed.

The Clown Car left Teri’s at 6:15 and we were good to go.

Once to the City, we took our pre-race photo and off to our corrals we went.

Dawn, Teri, and I were all starting in the same corral. My plan was to try to do the first 4 miles at a 9:50 pace and then see what I had for the last 2 miles. Dawn and I planned to stay together as long as possible, but we each knew that we would run what we needed to run. I will say that it was HOT, HUMID, and really yucky that morning. Those not running might say that it wasn’t so bad, but those actually running might disagree. Plus this was a hilly course. The hills were a slow grade, but they were there. As far as staying on pace, once again I had technical issues in that I didn’t clear my Garmin previous run. My bad. So the calculations were a little off, but I tried to stay on pace. I really was hoping to finish under an hour, but alas I didn’t. Still had a good time. Finishing in 1:01:17. I honestly don’t think it was the technical issues. I think it was the heat.

The race itself was nice. I took a prerace gel 15 minutes before which I think helped. I did like the course and I think it is fun to start on the street and not the park. We started on West 61rst street running till 81rst and then entering the park. This is the first race in a while that I’ve used music during and I’m conflicted on it. I think it might be best if I work on my playlist for this coming weekends 10K because my music was not matching what I needed to do. I might have been better off without it. Hmmmm. I also didn’t take any additional fuel during the race which I think was my mistake. I should have taken my second gel at the 5K mark, but I didn’t. Lesson learned. They did have spray stations but unfortunately due to my phone, I really didn’t utilize them to their full advantage. I smartly brought my own water bottle as I really hate the stop and go of using the water stations as it’s always hard to weave in and out with everyone else. I also didn’t run with my Fitletic Hyradtion belt but a smaller spibelt which I’m not used to on race day. That was the reason I couldn’t easily access my second gel. I was feeling drooping towards the end, but still managed to push it the last 400 meters with a pace of 7.29 according to my Garmin which I REALLY have a hard believing. Think it might be off.

Anyway….

Finished strong. Got my medal. Got my Flower and then got some much needed cold water and tried to catch my breath.

Teri finished first and found the perfect meeting spot high on the hill by a statue. Plus we got a nice breeze up there. Then as everyone finished literally within minutes of each other. We all met up for, of course, more pictures, race recaps and meeting up with the second MRTT Clown Car that came.

By the way, you can’t tell in this picture but Dawn’s tutu was adorable! It was a great way to spend the morning even if we didn’t get our cupcakes and the ice cream store was closed when we stopped. This is such an amazing group of women and I know that I would not be able to do the 9 plus 1 without them.