Decided to do it but kept postponing signing up so had to do it race day. Sucks. Whatever.
The timing of this was not ideal as the Israel day parade was that day which means potentially very tired legs.
Saturday, the kids and I swam in the morning together. Nice. Jeremy doesn't want to swim anymore with the class. Jessie's feet are having issues so we all went in the morning and I snuck them into the good pool. Afterwards the day was ours and I'm really not sure why, I was tired. Napped on the floor with my head in the dogs bed for a while. Really strange.
Sunday was gonna be interesting. Lee and I went to BJ's in the morning as we needed certain things badly. We got back and unloaded and got ready. My mom showed up and eventually we left. Jessie had to meet her school at 12:30 so I wanted to leave at 11:30 latest. Hopefully, drop Jeremy and my mom at my sister's house and then take Lee and Jessie to the parade. Due to Jessie's issues with her feet, we weren't sure how much she would be able to march so I was gonna stay with the car ready to spring to action. Unfortunatly, we left late and then hit traffic. Change of plans...Dropped Lee and Jessie off at 53rd and Lexington, then back to 22nd to my sisters to drop off Jeremy and my mom. Traffic sucked and it was slow going. A cop refused to let me turn on 22nd so I had to drop them off at 21st. Then back uptown to 73rd. Couldn't find parking at all, of course, so continuued straight and found something near 80th. Ok - not optimal but doable. Settled for the long haul with my book. Elizabeth sent me updates as to where they were.
I had the radio on and was also charging my phone and the GPS was on all while the car was off. All was good. They were approaching the end when suddenly the radio turned off. Oh no... Yes, the lights were also on and now the battery was dead. Shoot... And the ironic portion of this all? I always tease Elizabeth because she drains the battery almost every month and we had just gone to Pep Boys the day before and I almost bought a car engine boost pack, but didn't. What to do?
I could call Geico and they would be there within an hour. No good. I flagged a taxi down who as soon as he heard the problem told me he has a hybrid and drove away. Luckily, this guy pulled up near me. He wanted the spot behind me. I asked him and he agreed to give me a boost as long as I have cables. He had just bought a Nissan Altima and didn't think he had cables. He also didn't know how to open the hood and was actually thankful that I showed him how. Funny, right? He does a good deed and actually truly gets something back as he really didn't know where the switch was. Karma baby...
I got the car started, thanked him profusely (offered to buy them lunch but they refused) and flew away to find Lee and Jessie. We connected and started making our way to my sisters. It was late and we didn't bring LC with us because we anticipated traffic so we weren't sure what to do. Go in and say hi or just pick them up. Traffic was again disasterous and then we couldn't find parking so we gave up and asked them to come down. Sucks but practical.
We then tried to get home but Manhattan was a disaster. Numerous street closings with tons of detours and traffic. I couldn't take it anymore. I was already in the car for about 4 hours. I started driving the way you should in Manhattan and finally made it out of there only to be advised that there's traffic on the LIE and GCP. Finally, got off at Jewel Avenue and went local home. I was tired and my legs were hurting. Not good.
Adele and Heidi were at a spa weekend in NJ and I was kinda hoping they would cancel. If they would have cancelled I would have bailed too. Alas, they didn't and they picked me up at 6.
The Renegades were very well represented with about 12-14 of them I think. Wow...
Registered and back to car to put things down. Met up with Jeff's Brother, Aaron, and his weife Leah. They were both doing their 1st ever race. Leah was in better shape. Aaron was not in any shape from what I hear.
I laid down on the hard concrete cold floor and stretched. The cold felt good on my legs as it was like icing. Jeff, soon did that as well. The girls thought it was funny but it felt good. We also ran into Elaine so it was nice having a nice group.
Eventually, we started walking to the start. Ran into my buddy from Floral Park and his daughter. Talked more to the Renegades and suddenly realized that my group disappeared. They probably went to the back as I could not find them at all. Oh well. I was hoping Jeff would run with me and we would try to do something here but I guess it makes sense that he would be with his brother. Also, Jeff feels like he lost his Mojo since the Marathon. It does happen. Sort of like post-partum depression, the period of time after the Marathon is very anti-climatic which is why I told him he should already sign up for something before the Marathon.
Anyway, the brought out a bugler who starts the horse races and the dude was amazing and he had fun out there playing. Cool. Eventually, we did start and I went hard like I always do.
The course is kinda boring. You run in parking lots. No people really around. Nothing interesting to see. There were 2 dips where you go down and then climb back up. I think one of them was going under the Cross Island Parkway. Still, it was basically one big circle.
I was passed by 2 little boys. They ran really well together until red shirt made a move on blue shirt and took off.
I did cheer on the females that I saw and I saw 11th, 12th and 13th and they were battling for position.
Back to the start area and toward the track. Renegades cheered for me which was pretty cool. Thanks guys...
A little girl joined me at this point and we ran together to the track. I couldn't take it anymore and asked her her age. This was around mile 3. She said 9 as she flew away from me. How awesome is it to be chicked by a 9 year old little shorty? Actually, it did feel pretty cool.
We were on the track and I couldn't make it work for me. Couldn't sprint on that surface. It's like beach running and you either love it or hate it. Latter for me.
I did pass this girl who was not happy about that and she made it a point to pass me. She could have sprinted away. She didn't. She just passed me and stayed in front of me. Silly. If you could pass me then go for broke but whatever.
Finished and got my water and waited. Suddenly I hear something about the "president of the Alley Pond Striders" and I see CJR so I made sure to say hello.
Elaine finished looking like she was done. I guess we all were.
Eventually I see Jeff, Heidi, Aaron and Leah. Jeff apparently dropped to all 4 at one point to run like a horse. Crazy. They finished in about 34:20 or 11ish miles. Awesome. Later they told me that Aaron didn't look that great at one point and that he did stop to walk a little.
They went to get food/water and Heidi and I stayed for Adele.
While they went to get food, I went to get my free prostate screening. This race was for prostate cancer so might as well go for a free test. Hey, a free test for prostate cancer and no need to bend over equals awesomeness. Naturally there were a lot of joking about this.
Waited for the raffle. Apparently it was only for people who pre-registered as they only called out 3 digit numbers and day of registration was 4 digits which sucked. Whatever.
Home and shower and all is well.
Definitly a must do race but unfortunatly a one and done for me. It's cool finishing in the track and the after food was nice but I don't eat that stuff anyway and I didn't like the dirt running. It wasn't like trails. It was hard.