Healthy Kidneys, Unhealthy Lungs: UAE Healthy Kidney 10K

Name of the race: UAE Healthy Kidney 10K

Where: Central Park, Manhattan, NY

Date: May 10, 2014

Time: 8:00 am

Distance: 10K (6.2 miles)

Terrain: Slight rolling hills

Entry fee: $18 for NYRR members

Swag: Technical t-shirt and finisher medal

Post-race Food: Bananas, bagels, water, & Gatorade

Time: 53:06

Performance:Overall 2769/7976; Gender 683/3864; Age (F 35-39) 96/586

Weather: 61 degrees, 91% humidity, overcast

I’m behind on my blogging, so even though I did this race before Brooklyn Half, I’m just getting around to doing it now.

I woke up on May 10th and just hoped for a decent race. I don’t mean to harp on about having bronchitis (it’s almost all gone now! Hopefully. Fingers crossed), but that weekend was probably when the bronchitis was at its worst. Plus it was humid as heck.

NYRR has several races each year in Central Park. I joked with Ben that it’s always the same race, just with a different name. The start line wasn’t at its usual (for me) location farther up in the Upper East side, but some blocks south of that in the 60s. When I found this out, I said, “Oh my goodness! It’s a new course. I’ve never done this course before.” Ben shook his head at my bad joke and responded, “You know it’s the same loop that we’ve done before.” I continued to insist that it’s a completely new course because now the “infamous” Harlem Hills* came around Mile 3 instead of being much sooner, if the start line had been in its usual location farther north.

We ran into one of Ben’s colleagues from work. She used to work with Ben and recently transferred to a different department. While working with Ben, the racing bug bit her.

Then we went to our corrals. The best part about this race was the bibs. Anyone who has done several races with NYRR knows what each color means. The blue bib is the first and fastest corral. The red bib is the second corral. The yellow bib is the third and so forth. NYRR places you in your corral based on your fastest average pace for a race four miles or longer that you’ve done with them or if you’re new to NYRR, you can put in your pace. When I signed up for this race, NYRR didn’t have a pace for me, so I entered a 7:30 pace (at the time, my training was going well and I had ambitious plans). Well, something got messed up because they recorded me as having a 6:30 pace and I was IN THE BLUE CORRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND BEN WAS IN THE RED CORRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I danced a happy dance when I realized that I was in a corral ahead of him. Ben was a little annoyed by being in the red corral (he’s usually in the blue one) and even more perturbed by the fact that I was in the blue (we’re a tad competitive). Before the race I strutted around proudly showing off my blue bib, while Ben looked a little embarrassed to be next to me with his red bib. We walked to the red corral first, where Ben reluctantly got in and then I announced loudly, “I’m going to the first corral now. I’ll see you later.” Yes, I know I really should have moved back a few corrals, but considering that this is my one and only chance to ever be in the blue corral, I took advantage of it. I did my best to not get in anyone’s way by starting in the back of the corral (which by the way, was a complete sausage fest).

Because I wasn’t feeling 100%, I hoped that I would be able to hold onto a 8:00 pace. If not, then I just wanted to run whatever I was capable of running. Ben caught up to me within a half mile. He yelled hello as he ran past me. I really do love it when Ben and I are able to see each other during the race. I felt all right for the first couple of miles. Because I was ill, I felt the hills more this time around and my time slowed a bit. Then things started unraveling. My chest tightened and I got a side stitch, so I had to slow down. For the last mile I felt a bit better, so I picked up my pace slightly. Ben cheered me on just before the finish line, where I sprinted down the stretch.

My final time was 53:06. Not bad considering that I had difficulty breathing for a part of the race.

Mile splits

1. 7:57
2. 7:51
3. 8:28
4. 8:54
5. 9:08
6. 8:28
7. 7:28 (for .2)

Cherry Blossoms at Central Park

We stuck around to cheer Ben’s colleague. Then we headed to Astoria for brunch and to get some artisanal ice cream from Ice & Vice at the Long Island City Flea Market. Ice & Vice makes small batches of gourmet ice cream, but not ordinary ice cream flavors with gourmet ingredients. They have truly novel, inventive, and innovative flavors. My favorite is Opium Den, poppy seed ice cream with brown bread croutons. AMAZE-BALLS. I could seriously write a whole post dedicated to them. If you’re ever in NYC on the weekends, leave Manhattan and go over to Queens to get this incredible treat. 

*I have a hard time taking the Harlem Hills seriously. I used to live near San Francisco.