In 2015, it was in Astoria Park. Last year it was at Fort Totten. I also did the Night Crawl at Kissena Park this year. This year the PJ run was back in Astoria Park right near/under the TriBoro Bridge.
I guess I should explain it a little bit. You have 6 hours to do whatever it is you want to accomplish. That's it. That's the short version. The slightly longer version is that (obviously) it is loops with 1 well stocked aid station. Once the horn gets blown, you walk to the finish and tell them the last partial mile marker you saw. The loop at Astoria park was 1.2762 mile long. There are 2 hills that become mountains at some point. The weather was hot and humid but not as bad as last year at Fort Totten. The course is NOT closed so there will be people who don't care about you and you do NOT have priority. As this is called the PJ Run, it's from 5pm to 11pm. The other thing to mention, and this is only important to some people, is that if you have stomach issues then this PM race is a stressful thing to do. What do you eat? How much of it? How much do you drink? Will fully hydrated cause GI issues or is it better to be slightly dehydrated which is never good? Very stressful. In this, Jamey is like me tho I think to a lesser degree. If anything, his issues is at the other hand (vomitting).
In any case, the HUGE positive in all this is that I went to sleep early Friday night(10 pm) and woke up at 6 am the next day. Eight hours of sleep is 2 days worth so I was well rested.
I should mention that besides the GI trepidation, I had another worry. The prior weekend, we ran the water on Saturday and went harder than we have in a long time. The next day, I went riding without Amer. I rode 64 miles and rode harder. I then ran 6.3 miles with Hammad but I knew that my left quad is trashed. My father always used to day that if you are aware of a muscle then you hurt it. When I didn't work out, I didn't understand that. I do now. Think of it like this: You go and do extra abs workout and you strain your abs. Anything you do (laugh, burp, fart, stand, walk, run etc) will remind you of what you did to your abs. It's true... Well, my left quad didn't hurt but I was aware of it. When I touched it, it was rock hard as opposed to the right quad that was nice and soft. Oh well. I still ran during the week but I was worried. I didn't ride Tuesday morning because I was worried I would do more damage.
Then Monday around noon, the kids called. There's a funny smell. Not burning but funny. I went home. I thought maybe some animal died in the AC vents and that's what they are smelling. Got home and cleaned that out. I have been meaning to do that anyway. Except for the allergy storm that followed, I felt good about that. Then the AC stopped working. Monday started a 6 day period of over 90 defree temperatures with high humidity. Wonderful. Would I be able to cool down before the race? Would I be able to drink Green tea before the race to help with GI issues? The dog had it hard as he likes to sleep in our bedroom but he was panting hard. I called Donalds friend who was willing to come over Wednesday night but I work then and Elizabeth wanted me home for this. Thursday AM appointment. Tuesday and Wednesday I slept with the dog on the floor in the living room. I put the wall AC on but it would keep freezing and besides from noise did nothing. It was rough. Nobody slept well in the house. Thursday the AC was fixed and that night was heavenly. One thing did weigh me down tho: LC's health ain't what it used to be. He had a major seizure in our bedroom.
Saturday morning, I woke up "late" and immediatly went to eat breakfast. Later took Jessie to swim and this time I did not swim as well. I only watched. Actually, I ended guarding for about 10 minutes since they were short of Lifeguards but whatever. Got home after that and tried to eat as fast as I can and to get ready. Jamey was going to pick me up at 3pm.
Mo mother came to visit at 2:30 right as I was trying to get ready. Trying not to be rude and get ready all at the same time. I did take an immodium just in case. Gotta lock that dam as best I can. The facilities there are quite disgusting.
We got there and checked in. Said hello. Hit the facilities. Chilled out so to speak. People started showing up. It was nice seeing people.
As we were waiting who do I see stroll in??? Lance Dockery and his girl friend Emily Clay who I didn't remember her name. Lance is the RD for the C&O Canal 100 which was Jamey's first. Emily was captain of the start/finish aid station and she was awesome. She wanted an excuse to visit NY. She ran while he crewed. Awesome.
I get a slap in the ass from Julia. Later, Mary Harvey slaps my ass too and immedatly tells Jamey that that was a hard ass and that he needs to do that too. Thankfully he refused. My ass seems to get slapped a lot during these things by these 2.
Eventually Richie spoke. Phil McCarthy was inducted into the BUS hall of fame. Other people mentioned. Cool. And just like that the race started.
Kate as usual took off. Jamey, Mike and I were together and we were joined by Julia which was nice. Julia had the intention of running holding the same cup throughout. Don't think we did. I don't think we ran that fast but Julia was on/off with us. Esther was in front and then on/off with us. Erin Patrella was always either with us or in front of us. She looked strong tho eventually somewhere along the line, she lost steam. We passed Kate and Geraldine. We passed Dottie and Bill. Bill didn't look that great. He was fighting with PF. Sucks. We got past by Phil a few times. One time, he was just behind us as we approached the Astoria pool and the crowd. It was tough going through there but I started yelling "HOT FOOD!" and the crowd made a path. Little trick I learned during my catering days. Phil was able to stick right behind my right shoulder until it was clear and then fly away. April passed us a few times until we saw her on the side with ice on her knees. Her sister continuued on until she was ready to vomit and April came to rescue her. Mikey was with us except when he stopped to pee which was almost every lap. I was actually hydrated and I stopped to pee once which is incredible.
Most people had a hard time with the heat and humidity. I had none of that. I had my sponge in my hat and kept dunking it in ice water. My only issue was when I started choking on a piece of watermellon. That was NOT fun.
There was a guy there supporting his wife and he kept changing his sign every lap. That was cool. Who was his wife? This girl I started talking to who had really cool shorts with a logo that I can't remember now but I really liked. I didn't make the connection until later and I mentioned it to him and he replied that it "makes you want to stare at her ass". Oi... I told him that wasn't it. Still, I enjoyed talking to him and to her. More on them later.
Hammad and Ashley running. At one point, she was getting massaged and stretched - not good. Later she felt fine but he wasn't feeling well. I wonder if Saturday's run destoryed him. Ashley was training and then stopped. Oi. Still, it was cool to see them together.
At one point, we saw everyone staring at something near the aid station. Beautiful hawk on the fence. Cool.
All was going well. Here and there Jamey started his burping/almost vomitting. Oh oh... But he seemed to have it under control. All was going well until approx 3 hours into the race. A kid was playing with his ball (smaller than a soccer ball) and it went onto the path. I was worried someone would fall and so I was going to kick it out of the way and back to him. No good deed goes unpunished... There was a small dip in the road and the ball didn't go where it was supposed to. My foot went on the ball and promptly collapsed and my knee hit the pavement. Bloody knee and 2 bruised hands. Wonderful. I needed help to get up. I thought my day was over as I was in pain. Jamey told me the next day that he also was sure I was done. I would never scream at a little kid even though I was in major pain. Still, the kid came over and in a soft voice said, "Sorry... Are you ok?" Definition of cute right there. I told him I was ok and got up with help. The first hill was right there and I decided to walk it. After the hill, I tried my knees and they seemed ok. Back to running we went. Time past. Nerer saw Kate or Bill again. Mikey on/off with us. Julia on/off with us. Jamey starting to look not so good.
Dottie dropped. Time past. Jamey decided to vomit but couldn't. He sent me away while he tried to deal with this. I hooked up with a runner. He was going to walk. I told him that you don't walk here as the hill is coming and you walk that. He stayed with me. Started talking.
Conversation went like this:
Me: What's your name? Him: John. Yours? Me: Elik. Him: Ha...Elik. We were talking about you. Me: We were talking about me? Who's "we"? Him: Kate and me. Me: Ha.... OK.
Funny how it worked out that I started paceing one of Kate's friends from Connecticut who needed help. Small world.
He wanted 31 miles or at least 30. I wanted a Marathon and anything else was dessert. We already had a marathon so we just kept going.
One more loop. One more loop. Mike was done. He got his marathon and decided to actually be smart and stop. Beast is in 2 weeks. Maria still out there. Saw Bill who was in bad shape but wanted a Marathon.
We kept going. Time almost done. John said that this would be the last lap and we need to finish the whole loop so we didn't stop to drink at the last lap. OK... We ran. We got to Emily who was paced by Lance. I thought he was right behind me so I bridged to them. Then I saw Jamey going up the hill so I called out to him. He seemed ok now so I bridged to him. We ran the last loop harder than before. I was sure john was right behind me. We continuued. I knew the time so I told anyone who asked. People wanted to get their last bits in. Gotta start paying attention to those partial mile markers.
We ran. No walking the hills now. Less than a minute to go and I see the clock. We will make a full loop. Not going for a partial loop. Turns out John just missed finishing the loop tho he was very happy with himself and my pacing. He couldn't believe that I was able to take off like that. Always have another gear...
Bill was nice enough to lend me compression sleeves. Now they were all bloody and I told him that I will buy him new ones. Not his job to clean my blood off of them. As is, I think my calves are bigger and that I stretched them.
During the race, it rained on and off on us. Now that the race finished, it started coming down badly. I was near the tent when Nick Pallazzo started yelling about picking up the tent and moving it. He's an ok person but he was being a jerk. I know he had good intentions but he was yelling at me like an ass to pick up the tent. I was the only one from the 4 of us who did the race. I was ready to run with the tent while he and the other 2 couldn't keep up but still he was yelling at me for not running people over and to move even tho he couldn't keep up. Whatever.
We ate pizza huddled under the tent. Jamey stayed outside to cool off. He couldn't eat anyway. Mike/Maria immediatly took off. Richie eventually called out results and we got our trophies. We gave Esther and her father a ride to Long Island City as it was pouring and then were on our way home. It was pouring and there was a lot of traffic. Jamey asked me if I want Wendy's and I partially thought he was joking but also declined as it was late, I wasn't starving and wake up was coming and I was worried about the run the next day.
Got home and showered. I didn't realize how chafed I was. Small right armpit and pretty bad down south. The front wasn't horrible but the back was. I had very angry welts. Go figure. Between the bloody knee and the chafe and well the shower wasn't that great.
After that, I discovered that Jessie was in our bed and needed to be moved. Lee woke up and I mentioned that I fell. She asked if I cleaned it up and I told her no. She was shocked that they didn't have first aid. They did but I didn't want to stop. She got up and at 1:15 bandaged it up. Normally, I would let it breathe at night but it would have gotten the blanket all bloody.
I opted for a little more sleep (total of 3:30) even though I wasn't sure how the stomach would hold out for the run. It did but I got chafed even more. The shower after that was even more painful. Yay...
After that shower, Jessie, Elizabeth and I went to visit Mike and Maria. Brought them their trophies and finally(!) saw the puppies. Awesome even tho all 4 German Sheperds were attracted to my bloody knee and had to clean it up. The puppies especially. Oi.
From there to BJs and a quick lunch and then to NJ. Sitting in the car was NOT something I enjoyed in the least. Healing minute by minute is all I can say about that.