Well, the 5 mile challenge starts a 3 week race stretch for me. I always use it to be my low mileage, high intensity taper for the L.I Marathon but this year it will be the taper for the L.I Marathon which is a training run for the 50K. Weird.
This past Sunday, we ran 18 miles. Trying to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, we ran it all in Alley Pond. We did the 7 mile loop (AP->St. Francis->Past the L.I.E), follwed by the 8 mile loop (AP->Francis Lewis->Northern Blvd(E)->Oceania->Back into the hills of AP) and lastly 3 of the 5 mile Challenge. I originally thought of doing the 4 but the hills at this point got me. Jim and I pushed the 7 together by ourselves, then during the 8, I pushed on some of the AP hills. I was feeling my calves tighening up badly. Not cramping but close. As is, either my heel is hurting or I have early Plantar Fascia coming back. Should have changed the shoes. I was do and I got lazy. Stupid thing...Well, now I changed them.
In any case, it's coming and rain is expected. Sucks. What sucks even more is that my mother is working from 9-11 on Sunday and my in-laws are in Florida for the week. Not sure what to do with the kids who wanted to do the kids run. The rain thing is not making things easy either. Wait and see - wait and see.
The plan: Orthadentist at 9:45 for the boy and then a quick ride to the city. Finished with the boy and got lost on the way to the city. Should have gone the usual way I know, not the Throgs neck to who the hell knows in the bronx into the city. Thank God for GPS. Got us there. AG is beautiful. They have a 50 Meter pool and there was a HUGE line. Got through the line, departed from Jeremy and went to get seats in the bleachers. He was supposed to be swimming at 11:30 and we left him at 11:00. Before his group started they had a Uber-cool dive show with Olympic divers followed by the USA National Synchronized Swimming team. WOW! They also had a waterproofing show: A demo of the skills they taught little kids. Love it. One of the first skills they showed was, if you fall in the water, you turn, doggie paddle to the wall and get out. That's the first thing my kids learned in Gym-Swim. Nice to be able to reinforce it with Jessie. As I keep telling my kids: my kids will NEVER drown! And probably their kids too. My legacy!
Well, Jeremy had to wait about an hour and a half for his 50 M swim. Did a 39.99, 3rd place and I think it was a PR for him.
Met him outside and they got to play a little while I stood and waited for the next line. Stood there for 45 minutes. Called my guys and got Jessie going. Split up and got a seat on the bleachers again.
Took a long while again until Jessie could swim her 25. Came in 7 out of 8 and unfortunatly the timer broke so no time.
All in all the kids were happy. They both got t-shirts, medals and free ice-cream. Good day in all. Unfortunatly, I was on my feet the whole day and the bleachers were killing my neck, back and legs. Race the next day and I am sore. This is an A race too.
Did I mention it was beautiful? Something like 60 degree and blue skies.
I wake up the next day and I don't hear rain. Did we get lucky? Look out the window and oh man...Whatever.
So, recap: Kids aren't racing and in fact they will be watched by Donald (DD). He calls me up. He's at work and he will defintly be at the clubhouse by 9:40 while race start is 10:00. Cutting it short! Also, registration for the YMCA is at 8am. The swim program at the Y is cutthroat and Jessie passed her test into shark the week before (early). I tried to make sure she's in the computer but who knows. With us being at AG, I couldn't really make sure. Eight O'clock hits and I take care of registration, hit checkout and SHOOT! Jessie cannot go into Shark because of pre-requisties. Grabbed Flying Fish just in case and tried to check out when it tells me that the amount I am trying to pay does NOT match shopping cart. Frantic call and email to Carrol. Suddenly I figured out how to remove Shark and pay. She's guarannteed a spot in Flying Fish and that's OK. Now, time to get dressed for race. Still haven't registered for race because of rain so need to bug out.
Get there, actually find parking and go register. Registration was actually fast. Unlike the mess last year. It's 9:38 and I'm not worried yet. Who shows up 2 minutes early? DD. Cool stuff. Kids coming back from kids races all wet. Glad my guys didn't. A fun run should be fun not a pain. Still sucks that they didn't get a chance to run this year.
It's almost 10 and they are calling us out to the start. Decide on tights/shorts, singlet and gloves. Gonna be cold and wet but atleast the rain stopped.
The race this year was in memory of a strider who died. His daughter was supposed to start the race. OOPS! She pressed the horn early and like Pavlov's Dogs we all took off and then stopped and then started again. False start - oh well.
I'm running with the leaders(!) up to upper alley. How cool. First mile split was off: they told me 6:30 but my watch said 7:00. Hm. Gotta believe Mr. Timex. People started passing me and that's cool. Expected it. Renegades passing me (Arthur and Len and who_the_hell_knows * 2 and Cynthya) and Rob from AP. This is the first time ever, in this race, that I get to the parking lot before the lead runners coming back. In the parking lot, Cynthya passed me. She looked good! She's got 2nd overall female going.
I took some water at the water station and started to hear water sloshing in my stomach. Little GI cramping too. Man!
At mile 3, I was at 21:30+. Last time that happened was about 6 years ago. Why can't I do that in a 5K?!?
Number 3 overall female passes me after the left turn after the 3 mile marker. I thought she was Skinny Karen or Doreen from the Ymca. Wasn't her. She looked good.
Back in the park and the last 1.5 miles of hills. My plan here was to attack on that hill. Completly demoralize anyone following me by surging ahead. I've been practicing. I was tired and hurting and GI not feeling well but I knew I could do it. Surged. Got to 3rd woman and took her. Passed her. Eat my dust. First of the big bad hill down. On to the next. Brand new 3rd woman comes up and passes me. She looks good. This is the second time, I was worried for Cyn. Chased them. Longer distance, she might have taken Cyn but as is, Cyn had the lead. Guy passed me at the end. He looked good. Finished.
Started talking to Greg. Greg didn't run because his legs didn't come back from Boston. So his wife Tracy ran. Greg took care of kids until he could drop them off. Later he realized his legs were back. He ran 9 the day before. Greg was a little upset because he "only" did a 3:09 in Boston. No comment!
Ran back to hook up with Lee. Got her close to the 4 mile mark. She was looking good. Ran with her and another woman and Greg. Now, usually I yell at her to go faster at the end. This time, I didn't because I was busy yapping with Greg. Meanwhile she waited for the other woman and then gave up on her and THEN she takes off. WHAT? Usually, I yell GO and she tells me to be quiet. This time, she takes off! She got a 2:30ish PR. Unbelievable.
Oh yeah, her training? About 3 weeks before the race, I ran the 5 with her. That's it. Nothing since. So, her legs are a little sore. She'll be fine for Sunday - I know it. The other silliness she did? She took one of my old arch supports and put it in her shoe. Not the right arch support, not the right size (she cut it), a beat up one as well and well she got chaffed or a little bruised on her arch. That's my honey...
Meanwhile it seems that DD took the kids to hang out at the YMCA. Luckily, my kids stayed together and were fine. They were there to see Lee finish and ran her in.
Overall happy to have run even tho the weather sucked! Lee PR'ed by about 2:30ish and I PR'ed by about 2 seconds or so. Still, we both finished in 5th for our age groups. Oh well.
Jim bowed out of the race as well as Pepe. Gail, ran the race after doing a long run the day before. Her legs were toast so she was able to only do 8's! Got first for age. Awesome!
Pains me to say this but it might be time to retire this race. I don't know.