Just coming off the National Marathon I really haven’t done much speedwork or tempo runs. So I was going out with a plan just to have the best race I can.

Being that this race is a celebration of Scotland I hinted to Anh yesterday that wearing a kilt at the race would be awesome. With her skill set she immediately jumped to the idea. She purchased the plaid fabric and went to work. As they say never try something new on race day. Wearing a kilt would be an exception in this case :-). I wasn’t about to parade around Astoria training in a kilt and besides the window of any such training run would not be possible. After a late night birthday party at a friend Anh resumed her sewing. She completed the kilt late into the morning. Thank you so much boo boo. All was done at 2am. All while I was fast asleep “lazy sheep”.

Form is really improving

Race morning. The weather was perfect! 43 degree start. I had the usual peanut butter sandwich and we set out to the race. The course was setup to run a clockwise loop of Central Park. Usually we train counter clockwise. Training counter clockwise has it perks. You become very familiar with every turn, decent and hill on the course. Clockwise may pose a bit of a challenge if not approached carefully as the hills tend to be longer and more of a rolling terrain. The last time I did the clockwise loop was at the New York City Triathlon last summer. I ran it in 48 minutes.

Gun off. Race start. It was a bit congested as the start, maybe quarter mile or less. I did assume anyone in front of me, meaning the blue corral would make the congestion less of a factor, but no complains here. I quickly got my race legs and feel into rhythm.

Bummer! My Kinvara laces untied early into the race. With my gloves on and rhythm in tact I knew stopping was not an immediate option though this decision was a bit on the “crazy” ill-advised side. I ran this way for about 1-2 miles before I stopped over to a volunteer who was kind enough to tie them for me. The kindness of volunteers is priceless.

Picked up the pace and was just hoping that the laces would not fail again.

Finished the last 0.2 miles as strong as I was able to manage while keeping proper form. A next proud finish!

Recommendation to NYRR: even if it’s a shorter race and it may be cold, I could have really used a gatorade/sports drink at mile 4. We do burn huge amounts of energy (sugar) in those faster races and need our electrolytes replenished especially high sweat rate folks like myself. Otherwise great race organization and volunteering as always.

Finish Time: 42:10 (37 seconds PR over my last 10k)

Happy Scotland day!!!!!

 

Hello from Scotland