race day was warm and sunny! headed down to the city and subway'ed over to the west side based on the course map showing the bag drop on that side. arrive to the park to find out the bag drop is on the east side. sigh. boogied over, dropped my stuff, used the "royal flush" then back to the start. on my way back to my corral, i saw abdi abdirahman, ryan hall and meg keflizighi (aka the US olympic mens marathon team) getting ready at the start! very exciting. got in my corral just before they started pre-race announcements.
then we were off. i felt i ran well, walked through two water stops but really pushed hard at the end. came in at 51:50. not a PR but not too shabby, definitely my best 10k time in central park! gives me something else to push for at my next 10k, the NY mini in june.
here i am (in the aqua colored shirt and gray hat) all blurred in the background of this shot of some of the awesome volunteers behind the finish line.
walked back across the park to get my bag and decided i'd just pick up the subway on this side instead of walking west again. got to the station only to find no trains running downtown. great. so i walked the half mile or so to grand central. meh. at least i got this great view out of the deal:
