Man, it has been a long time since my last post. I am really going to try to update this thing once a week. Who would have thought that the summer would make up too much of my time.
Quick Points:
Queens 5K Race Recap
Next Steps
1. Queens 5K Race Recap
Although I was unable to sign up for the Queens 10K (one of my favorite races because it is in another location besides Central Park), I did have a bit of a blast running the 5k. Based on my times from previous races, I actually qualified to start in the first corral . . . probably, because the majority of the "big time" runners ran the 10K.
Race bib pickup at NYRR Annex.
It was a little rough making it to the 7:45am start, because I had to take TWO buses from Brooklyn deep into Queens. Ack!! I had to wake up at 5:20am to make into Queens on time. Plus, I stayed out till about 1:30 am, which gave me about 3-3.5 hours of restless sleep.
I guess drinking Moscato Mamas and eating fried and honey-soaked chicken wings at Dallas BBQ the night before a race is not a great idea.
I got a little distracted (or thought that I was smarter than Google Maps) and I got off of the bus a lot further than I wanted to. I think that the walk to the start area took about 35 minutes. This 30 minute walk was quite annoying because I only had about 10-15 minutes to stretch and mentally prepare for the race.
No clue where I am.
It was a cool experience starting in the A (first) corral because you could see all off of the pre-race activities, live.
I had a "blast" (which some minor annoyances) with this course - mainly the twists and the turns that were incorporated into late course. The beginning of the course was a little tough for me, because I left my water in the bag that I checked, so I was extremely thirsty while running to the first fluid station. For many of the NYRR races the fluid stations are at every 1 mile but the first station was at mile 1.5, which really threw me off.
Queens 5K Course
All in all, I had a good run without a personal best, although I ran the 5K at a 7'25''min/mi pace. However, I do not think that the pace was too bad because I was out late the night before and I had a VERY early wake up time on race day.
Some photos from the day.
2. Next stages.
I am moving through my marathon training workout plan and I now I have finished my "foundation" month. I am really excited (and a little scared) to embark on this next stage of my Montreal Marathon training. This portion of the plan will incorporate more speed and Fartlek runs to improve (hopefully) my stamina and speed. These types of workouts are great for me because I really wanted to complete this marathon in 3 hours and 45 minutes.
Speaking of marathons: I have signed up for quite a few races to meet the 9 portion of the 9+1 NYC Marathon qualifying plan, sponsored by NYRR. In the 9+1 plan, one has to run 9 races and volunteer for one event. Here are the races that I have signed up for:
- Achilles Hope and Possibility (4M)
- Boomer's Cystic Fibrosis Run to Breathe (4M)
- NYRR R-U-N 5K
- France Run (8K)
I just have to figure out when to do my long runs during the weeks of races. I know that some people incorporate the long runs into the race (e.g. run the race and keep running to complete the long run). But, I'm one of those people who likes to run his races as fast as possible, so fast that I will not have any energy to run another step once I cross the finish line. I guess that I will do the long run during the middle of the week for race weeks. We shall she how this goes.
If everything goes according to plan, I will be done with all of my qualifying races by the end of August, which means I (hopefully) will be running the NYC Marathon in 2017.
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