My First Race!
I did it!I ran my first race!
This morning did not get off to a great start. First of all, I was at work until almost 2am. I decided to treat the <4 hours of sleep I was going to get as a nap, and set my watch alarm for 5:45am so I could be out the door by 6:15 to meet Shari. I slept through my alarm. I woke up, at 6:20 and couldn't figure out how much time I had, exactly. I called Shari and told her I'd be about 15 minutes late. I showered quickly, dressed, packed a Harvest Bar and a packet of Gu and hurried out the door. David got up long enough to find me some safety pins and take a pre-race picture of me with my number (4401).
Shari and I didn't meet in the designated spot (a subway platform in Brooklyn) but found each other on the Upper East Side, a few blocks from the starting line. We used the facilites (yuck), stowed our bags in the baggage area, then headed for the starting line. We saw a few other Team in Training-ers. Around 8:45, we were off!
Running in a race is definitely different. I felt a bit claustrophobic at the starting line - there were a couple thousand people, and it was at first difficult to establish pace. The crowd thinned out, and I got off to a strong start. When I checked my time at the first mile, I couldn't believe it: 9:22! Before the race my goal was to finish in under 52:00, so I was off to a great start. Mile 2 was mostly downhill, and I was again surprised when I checked my time: 9:09. Yes, really. At around the halfway point I started to feel really crappy, so I walked for about 45 seconds. I admit that I figured I could still beat my goal given the pace I went for the first 2 miles. The 3rd mile took me 10:04. The 4th mile was the worst. I ran some and walked more. I attribute this part to lack of sleep - I just felt icky. My time for that mile was 10:52. Ugh.
However. When I saw that marker for the end of mile 4, I got really excited, and kicked it up a little. I even sprinted at the end.
My final time: 49:19. (It may actually be a few seconds faster, as I forgot to stop my watch as I crossed the finish line!)
I'm super super happy with this time. I did not expect to run it in under 50 minutes! And even more amazing was that David was waiting for me at the finish line, absolutely drenched (did I mention it poured for most of the race?)! I was thrilled to see him. Thanks for coming, babe!
Oh, and we all got semi-dorky medals at the finish line. Aw. I haven't won a medal since I won a high school math competition. I wore it proudly, along with my race number, on the subway after the race.
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