Here is a map of the course.
The plan: So, Jessie has tennis at 10 and the 5K is supposed to start at 9:45. Called up my mother who had an oil change scheduled for 8am. Right afterwards, she would come to our house and take Jessie to the YMCA. Now, I could have pre-registered but I procrastinated and we decided to wait for race day. Well, Saturday morning, I realized while waiting for my mother that I could just go and register and so I did.
Elizabeth wanted me to ask if dogs are welcome. Nope! was the answer. She decided that LC was running anyway...Got back home, my mother showed up and we split. LC happy to go in the car. Found parking and went to race start. Saw Anthony (neighbor) who ended up winning overall with 16.41 I think and Ray (DD's friend) who came in 3rd overall or 1st for age.
Little background here: This Foundation was created in honor of our three beautiful daughters Emma, Alyson and Katie Hance. They died in 2009, but through the activities of this Foundation we celebrate their spirits, their love of life, and the kindness and joy that embodied our beloved daughters.
Sad story but it seemed that the mother, high on drugs and alchoel, drove her 2 daughters, her niece and her son home from upstate. She was confused and disoriented and drove the wrong way into the teconic. She was killed, her 2 daughters were killed and so was her niece. Also, the 2 people whose car they crashed into died. Her son survived. Tragic story, one that "damaged" the entire neighborhood. The Girls were all liked. On the course, there were signs that had the letters "E", "A" and "K" seperated by hearts. These are the initials of Emma, Alyson and Katie.
Anyway, the race was about to star with tons of people. It was chip timing (start and finish) but when I saw kids lining up the front, I immediatly got in the front too. And when Ray said something to a couple of kids who ignored him, I sait outloud that hopefully a race official would realize that having the kids in the front is foolish and dangerous and it would be horrible if they got hurt. The race official got the point and told them to move. They did - a little. Whatever. Not my problem I guess.
The race starts on Floral Parkway into Floral Park proper, then 2 lefts and 1 street parallel to Atlantic which is the street adjacent to the LIRR. Till the end (school), 2 lefts and back towards the finish line. Straight line with a final right turn and 1.5 block to the finish line. The course was flat but there were 2 small elevations (burps) outgoing and incoming. Also a garage band was playing on someone lawn about a block before the final turn into the finish. I wish, I would have previewed the course tho.
I ran well, very strong, very suprising. Kept trading spaces with some guy in his 20's or maybe a little younger. He didn't know how to take the turns so I constantly ended up cutting him off. Sucks to be him. Gotta run the tangents baby.
At 1 point, someone said something to him like "hurry up" or "you can take this guy". I didn't really get that I was that guy until he responded with "What do you want? This guy does Marathons...". I was wearing my Marathon Maniacs singlet. I responded with "yes but slowly". Still, we kept at it until about 1 or 2 blocks before the final turn. I took off on him. Straight to the finish. Mustered what I can but wished I could have gone faster...
Happy with my time (21:39) but I wished I could have run faster. I would really like to break 21 one day.
As I finished, a girl in front of me finished, took some water and immediatly scrounged up under the chute and... Vomitted! Talk about giving it all you got...
Went looking for Jeremy. Much further back than I expected. He was hurting. He wore black, long sweatpants and a dark shirt. Major oops! Brought him in and while we turned to look for Lee, she finished not to much later.
She ran consistently with LC except that she stopped twice at the water stations to give him water.
Someone told Lee (apparently) during the race that in a block or 2, she will have to carry the dog. Little did she know that LC ran the 5 miler at AP.
DD later told me that Ray thinks the 5K was long. Maybe I did better than I expected? I came in 40th overall but 11th for my age group. What?!?
By the way, they had a record turnout...933 people participated in the 5K and if you add the 1 mile race and the pee-wee race, they had over 1,600 people and raised over $ 100,000. WOW!