Distance: 4.1 mi; Time: 32:28; Pace: 7:55 min/mi; Average BPM: 144
For this New Years Eve, I wanted to do something a little different rather than getting drunk before midnight, so I decided to participate in the New York Road Runners (NYRR) NYE Midnight Run. Fortunately for me, my cold did not prevent me from running the race.
Even though I have lived in NYC for about 13 years, I did not know that Central Park would be so active on NYE with a firework display and random activities to do at the NYRR's festival, like face painting (if you had the ability to wait in a line for over an hour). On a whole, the midnight run was pretty fun, especially with the fireworks display kicking off the race. Since this was a "fun" unscored run, the organizers used a honor system for corral assignment. This was not a good idea because humans have a tendency to think they are better than what they really are (call it wishful thinking). It was quite clear that people were placing themselves in incorrect corrals such as the 8:00 min/mi corral. During the race, it took about 1.5 miles for the race to be decongested and my first mile split was horrible (8' 43'' for the first mile). Well. . . horrible for doing a training run to complete a 1:45 half marathon.
Of course after the race, with a not so quick trip back to Brooklyn, it felt good to "after party" until 7:00am. Actually, it was more efficient to bring in the New Year this way because by the time I made it home, ate, showered, and changed, most of the drunks were on their way home and many of the bars were not THAT crowed. Plus, cab and uber fares were kind of low. Maybe running this race (if I am in New York) will becoming a yearly tradition for me.
