Signing up for this race was a last minute decision. I figured since I was going to be in Manhattan New York that weekend on a road trip, that I'd find a local race to run. At first I looked into running the Rock n' Roll New York 10k. But it was kind of far, located at the Prospect Park in Brooklyn. I looked further and found a NYRR half marathon in Central Park supporting Grete Waitz' charity, Aktiv. It was only $50 to sign up. These days half marathons are starting to cost around $100.
Unfortunately, on the morning of the second day of my road trip, I slip and fell in the shower. I hurt my butt badly enough that I thought that I needed my friend to take me to the emergency room. I decided to do some range of motion test to see I torn anything. It was fine, so I decided to tough it out. If it's not serious, it should get better in the next couple of days to about a week. It was an uncomfortable road trip to say the least. As each day went by, the butt felt better, just sore and bruised.
Race day
Race morning I felt like it was good enough, so I got ready and headed for the race. I sort of got lost riding the subway to the start. I wasn't exactly lost since I knew where I was, but I just couldn't get on the train to take me where I needed to go. There were signs posted saying to take the local C train from the express platform during the weekend. Well I did and I eventually ended up way north of Central Park at 168th St in Washington Heights. I just wanted to get off at 72nd. I met a couple of local runners that was also dealing with the same dilemma so I didn't feel as bad. When we finally found the local train that got us to our stop, we had to jog it to the tent to pick up our bibs. I got my bib and shirt. The shirt was a nice Adidas shirt. Since I was late, I had to take a large since they were out of mediums. I then headed over to the bag check area to store my bag. I had no time to visit the portapotties, so I headed over to the starting corrals.
Course map (click to enlarge)
It took it fairly easy on the first two miles and it felt okay. I thought I was going to have an okay race. I bumped into some runners that were in the group called "Powered by Dim Sum". They were a fun group of people. But then the hills of Central Park started making my butt sore. I kept slowing down, but the soreness kept increasing. The course was two loops around Central Park. About a mile into the second loop, I slowed to the point of walking. It was so sore that it felt as if it was burning. I jogged and walked the second loop to finish on the west side. There was no finisher's medal to collect and that's fine with me. The race was for a good charitable cause.
1: 8:32
2: 8:29
3: 8:56
4: 9:17
5: 9:51
6: 9:44
7: 9:57
8: 10:30
9: 10:49
10: 11:37
11: 12:40
12: 11:47
13: 10:44
13.1: 1:00
Finish: 2:13:53
Post-race
Given the injury that I had sustained, I definitely could not do any better. Prior to the fall, I thought I could run about a 1:55. Before the race I figured that I would finish around the 2:00 - 2:10 range and if it hurt more than I had expected, then I would finish closer to 2:15. All in all, I finished right where I'd expected.
I walked back to the starting area on the east side to go pick up my bag. After picking up my bag, I started heading towards Columbus Circle to catch the subway back to my hotel. Somehow I never really headed west so I ended up at the southeast corner of the park where I ran into the Hispanic Day Parade taking place along 5th Ave. It was super crowded so I just headed west and got the heck out of there. I didn't take pictures of the parade, but I did get some pictures of the park as I was leaving. I love horses.
For dinner, my friend and I went to eat at Go Go Curry. As usual, I got the Grand Slam plate. It's loaded with everything... chicken katsu, pork katsu, shrimp, sausages, and eggs. I guess it's good to load up on protein to repair any muscle damage.
This was the 3rd time that I got to run through Central Park. The other two times with during the NYC Marathon and the NYC Half Marathon. Running through the famous Central Park was awesome. Races like this one makes me want to live in the New York City area or at least come back more often to visit.
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