Alley Pond 5 Mile Challenge!

04/26/2013:

t's that time again. The Alley Pond 5 Mile Challenge or my first race over 5K to prepare for my first Marathon. I have done this race so many times now and run in AP pretty much every weekend that every year I say to myself that this is the last time. Yet, every year I realize that this is home, this is my club and this needs to happen. I know the course like the back of my hand. I know every nuance of it. Been there - done that. Well...Big news this year tho. The NYPD raised how much they charge for closing the street. Now, traditionally the APS colllect about 3K (I think) and after they take $$ for operating expenses (approx $ 1,200), they donate the rest. All of it. With the cops charging $ 500 for every corner or about $ 2,000 the race would become a "pay the cops race but don't donate to charity". So, the striders changed the course to be entirely in the park.

What does this mean? New race course. Tougher race course. Is that even possible? Remember my 50K in AP? They adopted part of it. We now run to the 76/Springfield AP and then back to the Green line and then to the parking lot. I will add more details after the race but that's it approx. Tougher and all in the park. Oi.

I guess it will be a nice change in scenery tho I still have mental scars from that route/race.

04/29/2013:

ere is the (detailed) race course description I mentioned. The start is on the green line close to the first underpass. The first thing you do is run up the hill and immediatly after the underpass, you make a right turn into the trail that led from the 5 mile challenge to the green line. This of course goes up and you eventually pass the "rocks" on the left. You continue through the left fork all the way to the 76st/Springfield park and a nice big loop around the baseball field and back to the usual upper Alley. From there around the dog park area and to your first water station. Circle around to connect to the trail you were on and now suddenly you are doing part of the original 5 mile challenge with the "rocks" on your right. Down the trail you came from and make a right on to the green line. Usually at this point you were at about 1.5 miles but no more. Now close to 2.25 and you still have to finish climbing the first big hill you originally started. Straight shot (up/down) to the parking lot, make a U-turn and head right back for 1.5 miles. Vince Del-Cid also wrote a course description.

So, race day approaches...Adele went to a spa in New Jersey but mentioned that her sister, Heidi, was hoping to run with Elizabeth if she was running. Cool. Kids didn't want to participate so that's ok too. Donald asked me about race start time and I told him 10am and that even he doesn't have an excuse.

Had a lot of stomach issues initially this year on training runs and both my races but it seemed like I figured things out by eating Matzoh the night before but last night I followed it with pineapple and the morning was a disaster. Took Immodium and hoped for the best.

I didn't pre-register. Decided to pay the extra $$ to AP which goes to charity instead of NYCRUNS. That meant that I had to leave the house at 9am latest as same day registration ends at 9:30. Hammad called me at 9 asked me where I was but I was on the way. Cool too because as I pulled into the parking lot he told me it was already full and I just U-turned and parked outside.

Elizabeth decided she was gonna run to AP to get a little more distance in because next week is the Long Island Half. My job was to register both of us and wait for her with her bib. Also to connect with Heidi. Easy right?

I registered us and waited for Elizabeth. Found Heidi who was having some sort of issues as well as she kept running to the bathroom. Hopefully just nerves. Sucks for her. I finally gave up on Lee. My stomach wasn't 100 % and waiting for Elizabeth wasn't helping - my turn in the bathroom. Thank God too as the hills would not have been kind to me. Elizabeth finally showed up at 9:55 as everyone started walking to the start line. Nice. Like I need the extra stress of worrying.

Hammad and I walked to the start and we found Elizabeth and Heidi. Suprisingly enough, they were not all the way in the back. Pulled Hammad with me to the front. My worry was the bottleneck at the right turn into the trail and also everyone lies about their time. Smart thing too. Who was near the front but Gail...Yay.

They spoke about the horn going off to start the race and I thought we had a little more time when out of the blue, it went off. Unbelievable...But like a trained greyhound (haha) I took off. I think it caught a lot of people off guard because the first 3 runners were ahead of the lead bike. In fact someone yelled that out loud how we are so fast we are ahead of the bike. Funny stuff. We were under the overpass when I realized I was runner number 7 which just didn't make sense. As expected runners did overtake me in time but at least I didn't get caught in the bottleneck.

Legs burning but going on. First mile was 6:55. Circled around the baseball field at 76 and Springfield when I notice Anu and baby Kiran. They looked great. Anu looked great. I'm sure Ed loved seeing them as well. Up the hill, out of there, hating that section and I just wanted to walk. I truly did. The 50K mental scar full in effect but I refused to give up. It's only 5 miles right? And once I hit the green line, it would only be another 2.5 - 2.7 miles. Some more people passed - cool. Arthur 8th overall so far. Ed around 12th. Saw Gail and she looked good. Saw Hammad and he looked good and suffering too. Apparently, he ran 15 with Andre on the trails the day before. Didn't see Elizabeth and Heidi but I figured it was a circle and we must have missed each other.

Whereas Hammad ran the day before as I am sure Ed and Gail did too, I didn't. This is an important race and is also my taper before next weeks double so I rested. Friday night went to sleep at 10pm and woke up the next day at 8am. That's 10 hours of sleep or 2.5 nights of sleep. Haha. Love all that rest stuff. Actually something funny happened Saturday morning. Normally on weekdays, I wake up at 5 am and on weekends anywhere from 2am to 3am. Well, since Saturday was a rest day, I didn't set an alarm. Still, I woke up at 4:55 and woke Elizabeth up and told her it's almost wake up time. She asked me why and I replied that it's almost 5 and gotta go to work. She, of course, replied that it's the weekend and it took a second for the realization to occur and I went back to sleep till 8am.

Back to the green line and running. As I run up the hill, I see Donald coming down the trail to eventually the green line. I figure he'll catch me real soon and that's ok. It's expected. Lead runners heading back as I am pushing forward. Finally get to the turn around and the 1.5 mile punishing miles back.

Up the hill on the green line, one of the Renegades catches up to me. He caught me last year around mile 3 as well. I wish I could stick with him.

Almost back and number 4 female comes up. Number 3 is just ahead and I tell her so. She tried to catch up and I follow her and her lead guy. Meanwhile, I caught another 2 male runners and if we had a little more real estate I would have caught the 3rd.

Still, we are almost at the end and I actually still have more of a kick and I do passing her easily. Kinda funny, I used her to catch the other 2, all while trying to help her and then when she had nothing, I still was there. Still, she wasn't happy. She finished with an angry face and said "I always short myself...". Oh well. Hugged her, congratulated her and told her to go to her fans.

Donald finished around 1:23 behind me and eventually so did Gail, CJR and Hammad. He is doing awesome. Donald wanted to run the loop again and I told him I would stick with him till I find Lee/Heidi. We did and came back with them but stopped to talk to Lorraine from Tennis at the YMCA. She commented on the fact that I wasn't sweating too much but that donald was drenched.

Results: I did a 38:08 or a 7:37 pace. That is, IMHO, a great time considering the course and I was hoping for something. Maybe even 3rd? Well, I came in 31 overall out of 244 people and 9th in my age group! I HATE my age group... Let's get that out now. Donald who came in after me was 6th in his age group. Gail got 1st for her age group - Nice. Arthur got 1st and Ed got 2nd.

Saw Matt Milone for a minute. He came to cheer his father who ran - nice. Dude didn't change at all. Looks the same.

Annoyance: Hm...How do I say this? We all have good days, bad days and mediocre days. That's a fact. I have never beaten Donald before and didn't expect to. I figured he was gonna pass me any minute. I would never make anyone feel bad about me beating them or getting into a pissing contest with them. If you beat me, that's awesome for you so why should I rain on your parade, right? What annoyed me was what he said to Matt. He said, "This guy actually beat me..." and proceeded to give the list of excuses. Jeez...It's possible that he had a bad day, that I had a good day or both but dude...! Really? No respect. Funny that something similar happened with Matt at my first Half-Ironman.

Spoke to him later that night. He was hurting badly. Planned on biking the next day (Monday) but it rained and was nasty so went to work instead. He told me that 3 times during the race, he wanted to stop and walk but refused to.

Haven't seen Hammad yet. Hope all ok.

Lee and I left early from race site (or a little late). We rushed home to shower, then to drive to Manhattan. Drop my Mom off and then to meet Lee's Brother, wife and son to see a comedy show for kids. The comics were teenagers (13-18) and it was clean for kids. This was a late Bday gift for Jessie. Had a nice day but came home to find that LC found out where we keep the Swiss-Miss Hot Chocolate powder and went to town with them.

Still a little annoyed with my time and quads actually sore. Got what I wanted tho: Much less mileage but higher intensity. Totally recovered by Wednesday.

Lee and Heidi ran well together but Heidi at the end sprinted to the finish whereas Elizabeth sprinted a little but finished alone. Her knee hurts a little and she thinks that was it. Kinda funny that she can run fine but otherwise a little sore. I think she will be fine for the LIHM.

On another note, Elizabeth told me she got a $ 15.00 off from this kosher fish restaurant on Union Turnpike and it turns out we won a $ 100.00 gift certificate from the same place - I left my bib with hammad. NICE!