Our first race of the year. The Fred Lebow Classic (5 miler). Both Anh and myself  performed exceedingly well finishing with personal records (PR). I finished in 36:22 and Anh 38:19. The weather was extremely cold with a temperature of about 19F. There were over 3000+ runners participating in this race in Central Park. Lots of runners came out in the New York frigid weather to support the great legacy of Fred Lebow. During his life, Mr. Lebow was actively involved with the New York Road Runners (NYRR) and also he was a founder of the NYC Marathon.

I was positioned in the second corral (red bib). The first being, blue (hoping to get into the blue corral sometime this year :), with adequate training). My fingers were so cold even with gloves on. I had to place them under my arm pits just to keep them warm. Before entering my corral, I even used the potty for added warmth. Race gun went off on time, thank God. I went off fast with the intention to keep that steady pace. Goal was to finish with a PR while listening to my body. The only challenge the course posed for me was at mile 3.8 when we encountered a final hill. I had to put in an extra kick to maintain my finish goal. Throughout the race I kept bypassing water stations, just too cold to stop and drink “ice water” I thought.

Afterthought, extremely satisfied with my race results and running this prestigious race. Awesome beginning to the 2010 season.