On Saturday, I got up early and headed to Central Park for the 40th annual Mini-Marathon, a race held by the New York Road Runners. According to the training plan I'm following, I was supposed to run 9 miles, and the race was only a 10K (6.2 miles), so I ran down to the starting line, which was a little over two miles from my apartment, at a pretty good clip, both to warm up and get in a little extra distance. I checked in about ten minutes before the race was supposed to start, and clipped on my number as I jogged towards the starting line. Nothing like cutting it close to get the old adrenaline going.
In the starting corral, I stretched and listened to the founder of the race talk about its history (it was the first all-women's race in the world) and introduce some of the top contenders, who included some national record-holders in various events, Olympians, and New York marathon winners. She also introduced the two men who would be running the event: the brother and husband/coach of the famous Greta (pronounced "Greta") Waitz. Grete died of cancer this year, but when she was in her prime, she won the New York marathon nine times, the most times any runner, male or female, has ever won such a major event. The race was dedicated to her, and this was the first time in its history that a man has ever completed it. (Not sure what the brother's time was, but her 63-year-old husband beat me by three minutes.) Then the gun went off and away we went.
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| I'm back in the 1000's - you can just see the red sign to the left. |
The race took us north on Central Park West for a bit, then veered into Central Park where we followed the running track that goes around the perimeter. It had felt pretty chilly that morning and so I was wearing 3/4-length tights. These turned out to be a bad idea, as it was cool but really humid and I found it hard to ventilate with the long pants on, as well as to breathe! 4,500 women of all descriptions bobbed around me, from leonine 20-year-olds skimming by with annoying effortlessness to gray-haired women in jaunty visors. One girl had tattoos completely covering both arms from shoulder to wrist. A team from Sweden stuck out in blue and yellow baseball caps. It was pretty cool to be part of this huge surge of women sweeping through Central Park, and to pass crowds of men left to cheer on the sidelines.
Other than the heat and the occasional taxing hill - hills in Central Park aren't steep, but they are long - I felt pretty good. I finished in 50:39, hot on the heels of the winner who crossed the finish line in 31:50. That's about eight minute per mile, and I would have been a bit faster if I'd made more of an effort to get out of the gridlock in the beginning instead of lollygagging around and enjoying the scene. I was reasonably happy with my time, although I look forward to my new training plan making me faster in the future. I received water, a medal, and a pink carnation on the other side of the finish line, and wandered over to the stage to listen to the emcee talking about race history and women in running for a few minutes before trudging back home to shower.
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| My loot. Alas, my carnation stem snapped on the jog home. |
It was a good race, and I look forward to the next one in just a little under two weeks! If I'm going to qualify automatically for the 2012 New York marathon, I need to run nine NYRR events before the end of 2011. The Mini was only #2 - I'm a bit behind because of my knee injury after the DC marathon - but I'm registered for four more this summer, so I should have no problem getting up to nine in time.
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