This year there was a little difference tho. I still hate the course. I still think it's a hard course. The difference was the Paumanok 70K trail race I did a few weeks back. I keep coming back to it. Harping about it but that race simply messed me up. I needed the 5 miler to be a good race. I'm not saying that I should win. I am saying that I want to be able to give it a good effort and my time should hopefully reflect it. I wasn't looking for a PR either, just to run well. Two years ago, Jeff was in my age group while Jamey wasn't. This year, they were both there. Oi...
You'd think tho that I would train for it... Speed work and what not. I didn't. What I did do, for the week before the course, visualized it in my head. Planned for it. Plan when I would attack and when I would rest. No, I didn't visualize me winning it with Zen and all that. I did see the course in my head tho. Made a plan for what I want to do.
The day before, I ran with Jeff, Heidi and Jamey. Planned for 3. Got a little more than 4. Still, didn't push. Felt good. Ran part of the course just to really cement it in my head.
Jamey picked me up the day of the race and we headed over there. Samara, his daughter, was going to do the fun run. Reuven wanted to do the 5 miler but Jamey and Raina thought it may not be a great idea and that he may not be allowed to do it. I asked "why not?". So Jamey called Raina and the boy still wanted to do it and so they registered him.
After that, it was time to socialize. See friends I haven't seen in a while... Hammad's cardiologist (Dr. Gupta sp?) was there again. Nice. A guy that I don't remember his name but see every year here, was there. I think he has beaten me before or at least we have battled it out before. He was there with a female friend.
Reuven got there and was nervous. Samara ran the kids fun run and thankfully didn't fall down or anything. She wasn't first but she finished and got a trophy for her troubles. She and Reuven had a great conversation after that.
SK: If you run the 5 miler, then you're gonna die. RK: (Looking a little nervous) I'm not gonna die. All of us: He's not gonna die. SK: If you die, can I have your Xbox? RK: I'm not gonna die but if I would do, you can have my Wii but not my Xbox. SM: If you die, why do you care if I have your Xbox?Clearly the conversation needed to die...
Some other mentions: Ron Weinberger was there again. Donald wasn't. Silly of him in my opinion but he doesn't want to race anything unless it's trails. He says he can't. Oh well. Andre was out too.
At on e point, I went inside to socialize and I saw CJR talking to Debbie. I went over to say hello and noticed he had scratches on his forearm. I asked him what happened. He picked up a paper so Debbie wouldn't be able to see his mouth and perhaps wouldn't be able to hear him and said "rough sex". She obviously heard and said "with what?!?". I like her... Good answer.
Almost time... Almost time. We go to line up after a final and last pee. I position myself in the front. Dana was there. She was injured and couldn't do the NJ Marathon. Trying to make a come back. Lisa wasn't too far in back of me. Jeff was starting with Joe his buddy. Jamey would start with Reuven. Now that this race is all chip timed, it doesn't really matter that much where you position yourself.
We start. I go out hard. I lose ground to the leaders. Completly expecting to do so. We go half way up the first big hill and then turn off to go toward 76th/Springfield. Legs burning a little but I'm ok. Breathing hard. We loop around and then back to Upper Alley. We circle there and now we see some of the people chasing us. I don't see Jamey but I see Jeff/Joe and they are too close for comfort. I also see Hammad. He looks good. Cool. I don't see Jamey and that's concerning. Either he decided to run the whole thing with Reuven (unlikely) or he really is on my "six". Not good. Back to the Green line to continue up that big bad first hill. I know this part like the back of my hand. I push when I can. I am almost at the 3 mile mark and I see the male overall leader heading back, just passing mile 4. Wow... I look at the clock. This guy is fast. Where is 2nd place?!? There he is... Second place is about almost 2 minutes behind with 3rd about 3-5 seconds behind him.
I continue on. Counting people ahead of me. At the parking lot, I turn around the cone and start the last 1.5 mile. I see Jamey. Too close...Too close. I increase my turnover rate. I get up the first hill. I look back but I don't see him but that's meaningless. I catch my breath. Again, I push for the second hill. Again, I look back but no Jamey. Last uphill and the area I use to take a deep breath. First female is close to me. I don't mind. Her male friend (remember him from the start?) is right behind her. I would have escorted her to the finish but he said something that prevented it. He said something like "Get him already...". Yeah... That doesn't work for me... I took off. I really took off. Not happening today sir...
I finish. She finishes and so does her friend. Jamey finishes about a minute behind and immedialy turns around to go look for Reuven. Good! Joe finishes with Jeff a few seconds behind him. Joe leans on a tree with his arms and tries to stretch his legs/calves. Jeff is on ground dry heaving tho I think it may have been wet heaving instead.
I grab Joe and tell him to come on and for Jeff to catch up once he's good. We find Jamey with Reuven. We continue to the turn around. Need the extra mileage.
We finish and go looking for food. They usually have good bagels but it's the last day of Passover and oh well. Suprise suprise tho they brought Matzah! Need some carbs... Turns out Raina brought too. Bigger suprise is Elizabeth and Jessie came over. Cool. Biggest suprise, I got 3rd for my age. Jamey got 4th and Jeff got 5th.
Raffles and awards and I feel like a second banana. I go look for them but no more. Very sad. One of the female volunteers told me to take a bagel but I told her it's not for me because of the holiday. She looks at me and says she hid a babana and I can take it because it's "aharon aharon chaviv". I told her I'm Israelli and I know what that means and she's shocked.
I won a $ 75.00 gift card to Bobbi Nigro's foot thing. Cool.
By the way, the male leader really smoked everyone in this race. Number 2 came in 3:35 after him...Wow!
Still a hard race. Still is a terrible course. Still gonna complain about it every year. Still will come back.