race report: kleinerman 10k

i always get the feeling i'm doing something vaguely illicit when i get up and sneak out of the house before dawn to go to a race.

after convincing zoe that it really wasn't time for a walk, i headed out this morning into the cool quiet dark. routine stop at dunkin donuts, then down to the train station. saw a few other runners on the platform too. usual bathroom stop at grand central, then onto the 6. today's race start was all the way up at 102nd. tons of runners on the train and sidewalks en route to the park. i guess the nice weather brought out lots of same-day registrants.

ah, race day. port-a-johns stretching to infinity, the constant sound of slamming doors.

quick stop atop a hill to shuck my extra layers, down to bag check, then off to the start. barely made it into my corral before the national anthem. bit chilly but not bad at all. i opted for capri tights and a long sleeve shirt, which worked out perfectly.

this race was one loop of central park, counterclockwise. because we started so far up, we hit the harlem hills within the first mile or so, which was nice to get that behind us. i tried to keep a steady, easy pace, i was not going for a PR or anything like that. i haven't done a 10k since last june i think, and haven't run more than 5 miles in i-can't-remember-when.

the miles ticked by pretty smoothly. early miles were quite crowded but people spread out well by mile 3 or so. hurdled an errant cone somewhere on the west side. almost ran over a dumb lady who decided to cross the course with her dog. also saw a dumb guy on a bike try to *ride* across the course and almost hit two runners (they were ok).

i haven't figured out how to download my garmin data yet (maybe later today?) so i don't know what my splits looked like. come to think of it, i didn't mark my miles during the race so i'm not sure i'll even get splits. we'll see.

mary herself was doing commentary near mile 6, i thought about heading to that side to get a high-five but didn't think i could pull it off safely. then into the finish. all in all, a nice race. except for the brown water at the end, not sure what was up with that. official time 56:30, for an overall pace of 9:07.

runners doing some post-race debriefing