Click here for Part 2 of this weekend's adventure.
11/20/2014:
As usual told my crew. I never push a race on someone ; I tell them and if they want to join...
Jeff jumped on it and signed up. He got all excited. He signed up and we were both looking forward to it. Sometime after registration, he realized or decided (not sure which) that he can do the NYC Marathon through the NYPD. He signed up for that too. This weekend was the weekend following the NYCM so I wasn't sure what he was going to do. Cancel/try to defer/do it anyway? Who knows... He did great at NYCM but he was hurting.
I didn't push but he did contact me after the NYCM and confirmed that we are going. Cool...Later it was changed to Heidi will run Saturday instead of him and that he will run on Sunday for the trail run. Cool.
I was gonna suggest that he drives Saturday and that I will drive Sunday but he offered both days and of course that made my life that much easier.
Schedule: There was an expo to attend and pick up the packets and they also let people pick up race day from 6am to 7:30am with race start at 8am. Advantage of an 8am start is clear. Start early/finish early/get home early. Unfortunatly it also means less sleep. Oh well. We decided to leave no later than 5:30am which translates to a 2am wakeup. Wonderful.
Woke up, had my breakfast and did my thing. Lately tho, ever since we moved the clock, LC has been coming downstairs on the weekend early. He would wake up when I wake up and either go back to sleep or move from his bed to Elizabeth's side of the bed and continue sleeping. Eventually, Lee would wake up and take him out. Ever since the clock change this changed. He now comes down and goes to sleep in his bed downstairs, keeping 1 eye open on me. As soon, as he would see the "signs" of me getting ready to go or almost ready to go, he would get out and start his stretching routine and yawning loudly letting me know that he's ready. What to do...? So, I took him out and when we came back, gave him his breakfast and then he (of course) ran upstairs to wake up Elizabeth to tell her how happy he is that he walked and ate. Funny dog.
Jeff and Heidi got there and we were on our way. Two hours for a 1:20 drive should be fine so I wasn't worried. I was a little apprehensive about 2 things tho... The road closures and finding the parking lots early and fast enough to make the packet pickeup time. Also, as we drove, my stomach made it's demands known so had to take care of that too.
We navigated well but then few blocks from race start, traffic stalled. We got to as close as 2 blocks away and we could see the parking lots but we came in from the wrong side and the cops didn't let anyone go through. If we knew the area, we would have approached it from a different side and would have parked in the parking lots provided for the race and secured by the cops. As is, Heidi and I jumped out and went to pick up. I assumed that Jeff would find a spot and come over but he never did. More on that later tho...
We picked up our stuff and made a beeline to the port-a-potties. There were lines but we (using my eagle eyes) went to the further ones and they were empty with no lines and still mostly virgin. NICE!
I was of course shivering like crazy. Talk about the weather for a second. I had a talk with Donald who told me that I am not dressed correctly and so, lent me an Under Armor shirt. Still, I wasn't dressed as much as I am used to and I was cold.
Time was running out and we quickly checked in our stuff that we picked up. Pretty much our bags were the goody bags we got. They gave a nice long sleeve shirt so that was cool.
I went to the port-a-pottie again to lose a little more weight. No point in carrying more than you need to, right?
OK...Time to start. Heidi wanted to get in the corral but I told her not to. There was a gap in the fence and there was no point in getting squished.
Speeches and such and anxiety is running high. We saw a runner bring his little kid (6 or 7 year old) into the corral, hug him and then leave him to go to the front. Wow...
It's already past 8 and we still have not started. Then they announced that it would start in 5 minutes. Sheesh...One (female) runner jumped the fence and ran straight to the port-a-pottie. That started a mass exodus. Tons of people went. Even Heidi went...
Ten minutes later they annouced that we would start in 5 minutes. They are just making sure the roads are safe for us. What does that even mean?!? Road closures mean road closures... Still, I read a race report from a previous year that they started 30 minutes late. Looked at my clock and we were approaching the 30 minute mark too.
We finally started and I think it was 8:29. Heidi and I got into the corral and walked with the rest of the herd. We crossed the starting line with our chips and... and... Still walked. It was that crowded with walkers who should not have been in the front. Sheesh...I forgot the dishonesty factor. Actually, I didn't forget. I just didn't realize how narrow the lane is even after the starting mat. I walked for about 30-40 seconds which annoyed me greatly. I had already decided that it would be nice to see how long I could stay with the 8 minute pace group and well, I lost so much time that in full honesty, I just never saw them. Oh well.
I finally started running and right away we go up a little hill. Actually it was the highway entrance. We made some turn and headed right back from where we came and past the start line.
I don't really know the course but it was a mixture of running on the highway and on the streets. I was initially feeling good so I ran. Just ran. I was remembering the Hershey's Half and so I continued on.
At around mile 2.5, we got off the highway to go into the streets. There was a guy there who kinda resembled a chicken to me. He had what looked like a chicken's beak and perhaps chicken feet. As I got colder, I realized he was just wearing a red handkerchief on his face like my muffler but still the chicken resemblance was uncanny. Initially, I was thinking that he was one of those people who advertise a food joint. Then I thought he was just cold. Later on during the race, I saw him again and I am now convinced that he was dressed (cheaply) as a chicken. Whatever...
Anyway, off the highway and near the government offices. The area was beautiful. We soon left that area and into private streets. Beautiful brownstones and later beautiful tennements. Parts of the race course were expensive areas. Other areas were squallor type of living. Very hard to grasp. Up a hill at about 3.5 miles and there's a water stop there. Circled around in a detour and came back down the same hill.
Bridges... The race had them. It seemed like we had 4 or 5 bridges. They weren't huge or bad. Nothing like the Verazzano Bridge or something but still. At this point(4.5ish), we had to traverse a bridge into Pennsylvania. It was a long flat bridge. The surface was all grates so you could see the river underneath you and eventually the rocks as you got to shore. If you were afraid of heights, I'm sure this mentally screwed you up.
Little tangent here quickly but very relevant to this story...Theres a new running group called Black Girls Run (BGR). I had already started seeing them in races much like you see the purple people or Team In Training (TNT). Usually, I will see at most 20-30 BGR runners and I think I have seen them in Alley Pond training. Here tho, the course was flooded with them. They had on black shirts that in the back read "Preserve The Sexy". I was running and encouraging all that I could. It's my style.
So, why was the tangent important? We are on the bridge. It's all grates and anyone who is scared of heights must be having a tough time. Well, I see this woman and she's having issues. With her is another BGR and she's holding her arm and they are slowly making their way. I don't know if she was just hurting and exhausted or scared or both but I threw some encouragement to them and continuued. Really made me happy to see the compassion here. I love stuff like that, sappy fool that I am...
Anyway, I'm not afraid of heights and let me just say that the view was incredible. Really enjoying the course so far. There was on and off wind in your face so unfortunatly, wind was an issue but the course it self was great.
At about 6.25, we again took a bridge, this time back into New Jersey. Again beautiful view. This time tho, I could see that some people instead of running where the cars would normally be on (grates) ran on the pedestrian walkway. The grates didn't bother me so I didn't want to be in anyones way and I stayed on the grates.
At this point, somewhere between miles 7 and 8, I saw the leader on the other side fly back. Wow...This guy was cooking. About 3 minutes later, 2nd male. A few minutes later, 3rd male. A few minutes later, more runners. It was their mile 11 and the leaders were so seperated from each other. What drama...
Right after mile 8, we got off the highway and onto local streets toward some park. I saw the 7 minute pace group. Actually, I saw the pace group leader and he was by himself. Something you don't usually see...At mile 8.5 we entered the park and did a full circuit. I started talking to this guy who told me he "cheated" last race and walked. Oi...Explained to him about the running police not being real. Hate when people talk like that. He "cheated" because he walked...
Full circle and started talking to some woman. She was pushing me on but as we left the park she dropped back because I was running too fast. The reality was I was trying to keep up with her. OK...Out of the park and mile 10 approaching. I knew we were going to get back on the highway.
This guy Brian had caught up with me just as someone on the other side waved to me. I waved back but Brian spoke to him. I told Brian that I thought the guy was waving to me and we laughed. We then decided to stick to each other and make the best of it. His usual was 1:48ish. I at this point "knew" I would be under 1:50 and hoped for maybe a PR. Who knows...
Back to BGR again for a second... They were wither doing the 5K or 10K and as such our routes wove in and out of each others way. It didn't bother me tho. It felt good to pass people even if they were slow but more important (to me!) was I was constantly encouraging runners and it really made me feel good to see these woman just try their best and of course to see the compassion and encouragement they had from each other.
Right before mile 12, we again left the highway. Chicken man was there again. We passed near the government buildings again and again onto the highway. This was obviously just to build up the mileage.
Stupid annoyance: Between mile 10 and the finish there were no mile markers. I don't know if they got blown away from the wind or they were just not there in the first place but that was annoying.
Brian and I still running. Liz joined us and the three of us just ran. I knew there was no PR at this point but I was determined to keep it a sub 1:50 and perhaps to at least have a 1:48. I have only gone sub 1:50 twice in my life and this was important to me. There's a race in Virginia that I would love to do and I needed to know of I can do this...
At mile 13, we made a sharp right turn. We were off the highway and heading to the stadium. Brian dropped. Liz was with me. Around the stadium and Liz dropped. I was speeding up faster and faster. Into the stadium and around the outfield. Headed into home plate and the finish line. I couldn't sprint even faster but I did managed to keep the pace and perhaps go a little faster passing people. I finished in 1:48:44 and was very happy.
Got my medal and waited for Heidi. Spoke to Jeff and waited. Really started getting cold now but tried to distract myself with the finish line.
Every racer got a medal. There were 3 different sizes as there were 3 different races. The Half-Marathon medal was big and nice. I took my phone out of it's case and then saw some dollar bills on the ground. Huh? Then I realized they were mine. I leave them in the phone case so they fell out. Then I started freaking out because I thought I dropped my drivers license too but I didn't.
A BGR started talking to me and I mentioned that I usually see 20-30 but today seemed like a lot and I asked if she knew how many were there. She told me that there were between 700 and 800 of them there. I couldn't believe it. Well, I did. I then noticed that every BGR got 2 medals. The race medal and a BGR medal. I guess that this was their event that they train for. Cool.
Heidi: Still not there. I knew I dropped her but where is she? I don't usually worry. I started worrying. Jeff was worrying and starting to freak out. Suddenly I saw Heidi. Cool. We got food and went out to get our bags and toward the car. Jeff was parked where he dropped us off.
He wasn't happy. While waiting he saw 2 runners on their way to race start get accosted by a native. Also he went to Dunkin Donuts to get a coffee which of course led to him needing to "drop a deuce" as he likes to say. While in the stall, there was a drug deal going on outside the stall. He was worried baout getting carjacked. The truth is, that while the course was beautiful which he didn't get to experience, the place he parked sucked. If we would have figured out how to get to the secure outdoor parking, all would have been ok but we didn't. This is Trenton and crime is high.
We tried to get out of dodge but the GPS led us to closed streets. We stopped to ask a mailman and that got us in a general direction but then again we had closed streets. Finally, we saw a cop and Jeff gunned the engine toward him and parked. He grabbed his NYPD id and stormed out of the car. His body attitude was a little threatening I think and the cop immediatly got out of car. Jeff controlled himself and showed his id so the situation was diffused. This of course is my point of view. He might not agree. Got on the highway toward home finally. It was a little tense but I started with my usual crap and soon we were all laughing again and the situation was jovial again. Phew...
I really liked the course, the medal and the shirt. Unfortunatly, it's an early start which starts late which sucks. Not sure what else to say about it.
Click here for Part 2 of this weekend's adventure.