Race Report: Front Runners New York LGBT Pride Run 4M (Copy)

DATE: June 25, 2022; 8:30 am (my birthday)

DISTANCE: 4 MI

PLACE: Manhattan (Central Park), NY

WEATHER: 71 DEGREES, 76% HUMIDITY, CALM WIND

OFFICIAL TIME / PACE: Who cares? / who cares

FINISHERS: 7,202

SWAG: Tank top, rainbow bagels, rainbow popsicles

Quick Stats:

Courtesy of NYRR

Summary:

Who's got PRIDE? We've got pride. I guess this really is not an actual report, but more of a brief summary.

 
 

Another year, another Pride Run 4 mi (it used to be 5 mi) - a race sponsored by NYRR and Front Runners NY (FRNY, one my running groups). This was going to be a simple race just to get back into the flow of things before starting my NYC Marathon training program on Monday.

 
 

While the expo was nice and pretty straight to the point, it gave me a chance to check out Industry City, which has been described as a creative workspace where folks can eat, drink, shop, and explore. After I picked up my race stuff, I figured that I would check out all (or most of) what Industry City had to offer.

Overall, I went into the race without any real goals or major accomplishments to achieve since this was my first race since April. My mental state for this race was to run/jog/walk for the sake of having fun. I will say that it did feel nice to kinda-sorta race. In fact, I woke up extra early (y'all know that's rare for me on race days) so I could walk and jog to the start. For the actual race, I cycled between running and walking 0.5 mi.

A couple of things that make you go hmmmmm:

When technology fails

Has this happened to anyone with an Apple watch? For Saturday's race, I decided to do a very easy jog from a local park in my neighborhood to the race's start (about 4 miles). I started my watch at W120 street, but it did not start registering my mileage until E 96th Street. The distance between these two points is about 1.5 miles. I hope that might watch is not on the fritz; I wonder if it means it's time to upgrade to a new Apple Watch. Perhaps, that could be a birthday gift to me.

My LGBT+ running group

Not sure if this is snow or snot.

As part of the FRNY Pride Run tradition, we take a team photo after the race (below).

 
 

In addition to the large group photo, the club takes pictures of the smaller subgroups within the club (eg the various subcommittees, gay Asians, gay Latinos, women, non-binary, etc.). So someone asked me if I was going to do the Black gays photo. To which, I was like which Blacks? Is it just going to be me in the photo? I later learned that there were about 8 Black members in the Black team member photo. Before you ask why I was not in that photo, I did not near the president announce our photo because I was on the phone with a couple of folks who were wishing me a happy birthday. Eh next time . . . I guess. While this sounds like a rant, which I do not mean to do. I will say the group has been working on its DEI efforts.

A little post-race fun:

While waiting for the husband to meet me at a local spot for brunch, I treated myself to a refreshing screwmosa (vodka + mimosa).

In terms of birthday celebrations, it was pretty chill . . . just like I wanted it to be. After brunch, we went to a wine bar, watched Jurassic World: Dominion, went to a friend's wedding reception in Brooklyn Park, then had dinner. Oh, we went home and continued my Jaws marathon. Random trivia: Every year around my birthday, I watch Jaws and its sequels. Oh (part II), I was a bit disappointed with Jurassic World, and I hope this is the last one. Also, in this day in age, no action movie needs to be longer than two hours.

Pride Run Playlist:

 
 

NYC Marathon Training Wk 0

NYC Marathon 2022 #6

All righty, it's that time of year again . . . Getting off my ass and start training for NYC Marathon 2022. It feels a little early, but Nov. 6, 2022 will be right around the corner in no time.

Since I have not really been putting a lot of effort into running lately, I think that I'm going to train for this marathon as a beginner. Well . . . a beginner in the physical, flabby, chain-smoker sense. As I move through my training calendar, I will start planning some goals for this marathon. Speaking of my training calendar, I'm going with Hal Higdon's Marathon Training Plan: Novice 2. I've already added the training plan to my Google Calendar, and we'll begin on June 27, 2022.

Image from Hal Higdon Training (Link ***)

Since I have to be difficult, I will make some minor adjustments to the training. For instance, Wednesdays will be dedicated to running workouts focused on speed runs, race pace runs, tempo runs, Yasso 800s, and VO2-max runs. While June 27, 2022 officially is my training start day, I'll technically start this weekend because I am running the FRNY Pride Run (4M) on Saturday and Achilles Hope & Possibility (4M) on Sunday. I have a feeling that I'll probably walk one of these races. Let's see where the weekend will take me.

A little positivity that I saw on my block after this morning's (very) easy run.

Birthday Week

I guess it's almost time to add another candle to the old birthday cake. June 25 will mark yet another birthday (ugh). I will be honest and say that I'm not really in the mood to celebrate my birthday this year with planning a major move and having to find a new job. You know, I think that I'm getting to the age (maybe it's my personality) where I do not really feel the need to celebrate my birthday. I'm fine with celebrating other folks' birthdays, but I'm like whatever when it comes to mine. Maybe that will change for the "more important" birthdays - you know, the ones that come in multiples of fives. The hubby and two friends did have dinner the other night, and the restaurant gave up an order of their specialty doughnuts. I think the waiter heard us talk about birthdays. For our group, we have this connection: Friend A's husband's birthday (6/23), my birthday (6/25), Friend A's birthday (7/4), and hubby's birthday (7/26).

Starting from Scratch + A Life Update

Ok, so running has been a little ho hum for the past few weeks. While I have not been running super hard, I have been doing very easy daily jogs and walks. I think that I’m at about 4-5 miles a day. However, I will admit most of these workouts have been “speed” walking. One of my 2022 goals was to run 2022km, but I think that I can still meet this goal if I run/jog/speed walk ~4 miles a day.

I think that I’m going to use this off time for the next couple of weeks to get my mind right before starting my training plan for NYC Marathon 2022. Right now, I think that I will officially start training for NYC Marathon on July 1, which will give me about four months to get ready for NYCM. Because I’m a nut and really want to hit the ground running (pun intended), I plan to run two races during my birthday weekend.

We have the LGBT Pride Run (4M; June 25, my birthday) and Achilles Hope & Possibility (4M; June 26). I think running a couple of races will get me back into racing and training mode. However, there is another reason for running these two races over the course of one weekend. As some may know, an easy way to run NYC Marathon is to run nine New York Road Runners (NYRR) sponsored races and volunteer for one race. I really need to start doing as many of these 9 races as possible because . . .

Life Update

Kwablo (Kwame + Pablo; my and my husband’s names) is leaving the Big Apple. Yup, you read this correctly, we’re leaving NYC in about a month. Because of some family commitments, I think that life would be easier in Hampton Roads, VA (my hometown). While I have been in NYC physically, I really have been mentally and emotionally in VA for the past few months. Regarding NYRR’s 9+1 program for NYC Marathon 2023, I need to fit in as many races as I can before we leave in the middle of July. I wonder if I can run a race on the same day that will pack the moving truck? With these two races, I’ll have five out of nine races completed. Also, NYC M will count as one of the nine races so that will be six. Since I hope to be in NYC during marathon weekend, I could register for Abbot Dash to the Finish Line 5K, which is held the day before the marathon, which will bring me to seven out of the nine races. Now, I need to figure out how/when I will fit in the other two races. Perhaps, NYRR has some 9+1 virtual races . . . although I’m not a huge fan of paying for virtual races. Also, I guess we can come up to NYC for a runcation long weekend sometime between August and November and/or between November and December. After this year, I guess I will start running for charity if I plan on running future NYC Marathons.

Although it might be easier to deal with my family situation in VA, I will be honest and say that I’m going to miss the f*ck out of New York. Yes, I know that I have complained about NYC . . . A LOT over the past few months. Hey, it’s the city that we love to hate. This move will be tough because I’ve spent more time living in New York City than I have in my hometown. I pretty much left Va Beach in July 1998 for college and have not returned since except for the holidays. Come to think of it, this July 2nd will be my 20th anniversary in NYC. I hope that I’m ready for the drastic change of life (ie the fast pace of NYC to the slower pace of the Hampton Roads area in VA).

Random Thoughts Thursday – Running Topics

Preface:

After running (pun intended) this blog for a few years, sometimes it is a bit tough to come up with topics to write about. Fortunately for me, Sara Kurth has published a massive list of potential blog topics that focuses on running (check out her blog here, ***).

When did you first consider yourself ‘a runner’?

Although I ran cross country and track & field (1600 m and 3200 m) in high school, I never saw myself as a true runner. Well, technically, I did run cross country for about a week in college. During my high school life, I pretty much participated in these sports because they were “easy sports”. I have never really been a sports guy so I was not interested in playing more traditional sports like baseball, basketball, or football. Boy, was my grandfather a bit disappointed that I did not show any interest in baseball as a little kid because “it was in my blood”. Random trivia about my family: my grandfather and two of my great uncles played baseball in the Negro League. Oh wait, I did play soccer until my middle school years, but I was not interested in pursuing it any further.

See, I already became distracted. Let’s answer the question at hand. I started considering myself a runner when I started paying to run New York Road Runners (NYRR)-sponsored races. I guess that would have started back in 2011. For me, I think that’s when running transitioned from a passive hobby to an active hobby because I’m pretty cheap. That said, I often do not consider myself a true or a hardcore runner even though I have run over 5 marathons. Here are some (mostly superficial) reasons:

  • I typically own only one pair of running shoes at a time.

  • I find it difficult to engage with the local running community. I believe that I have blogged about my issues with running groups. To be perfectly honest, most of these are my issues and not running groups . . . for the most part.

  • I do not really keep up with elite runners or new advancements in the sport.

  • I rarely stick with my training plans.

  • Most of the time, I run just for the sake of running (ie ain’t sh*t else to do).

Since I was beating myself up a bit with this short list, I’ll add some humor to offset the negativity. With the help of the Thrillist article “30 signs you’ve officially become a runner”, I’ve listed the five signs that I identify with. Here’s the list in case you are interested (link: ***)

  • You’ve started Googling road races in exotic locations you want to visit.

  • You have to do laundry twice as often.

  • You’ve started to keep deodorant at your desk at work.

  • You’ve hated yourself during a race.

  • You’ve started to think of distances in terms of how long it would take for you to run that far.