Name of the race: Poland Spring Marathon Kickoff
Where: Central Park, Manhattan, NYC, NY
Date: Oct 26, 2014
Time: 8:30 am
Distance: 5 miles
Terrain: One smaller loop in Central Park, small rolling hills
Entry fee: $17
Swag: Cotton t shirt
Post-race Food: Apples, bagels, & a bottle of Poland Spring Water
Time: 39:20
Performance:Overall 1000/5522; Gender 209/2985; Age (35-39) 33/509
Weather: 59 degrees, 40% humidity
We haven’t signed up for many races this year for various reasons. If we weren’t NYRR members, I think we would have done even fewer. We signed up for Poland Spring a while ago and I had completely forgotten about it until Ben mentioned it a few days the race date. I was looking forward to the race because I hadn’t been having the greatest training runs lately, particularly with tempos. I like to do 4-5 mile tempo runs at an 8:00 pace, but I hadn’t been hitting it. I race better than I train, so I was eagerly looking forward to using this race as a good tempo run. Before the race, I told Ben I was targeting for a 40-min race.
Because of the overwhelming number of runners at an NYRR race, NYRR seeds you based on your best pace on one of their races that 3-miles or longer in the past year. My prior pace has expired, so they seeded me based on my Brooklyn Half pace (8:32). This placed me in the green corral, which is somewhere in the middle. Ben’s fast, so he was in the blue corral as usual.
NYRR races are always congested, but I was really packed in for the first mile. I gave up trying to do any sort of good tangents and instead darted around trying to find a hole so I could move up ahead. Thanks to the crowd, my first mile was nice and slow (8:15). The congestion mostly cleared for me past the first mile and at Mile 3, I had plenty of room. Around Mile 2 I tried to get around a couple of older male runners, so I politely said, “Excuse me” before I made my move. They moved over and I leaped into action to fly through the brief opening before other runners tried to move in. As I ran, I overheard say to each other, “There must be something in the Poland Spring water.” I grinned.
The rolling hills of Central Park make for interesting pace. I don’t try to do even pacing, but rather even effort. I try not to lose too much time when I go up and let the decline work for me when I’m running down. The third mile felt the hardest for me. I was pleased to see my paces on my Garmin and knew I was well on my way to getting a sub-40, barring any major meltdowns.
You can see the pain on my face.
At Mile 4, I was relieved that there was one mile left. I figured I had a bit of a cushion and could slow down to an 8:00 pace and still make my goal. I didn’t want to slow down, so I decided to keep on pushing a sub-8:00 pace. The last mile went well, until the last quarter mile. I started to feel queasy in my stomach and wondered if I shouldn’t have eaten the ENTIRE apple turnover for breakfast before the race. The last .1 was the worst. At that point, I knew I was going to throw up. I didn’t want to vomit before finishing, so I sloooooowwwwwwed down to keep myself from vomiting. At this point, I was doing everything I could to manage the nausea. I heard Ben cheering for me, but I couldn’t acknowledge him. I was on the edge of falling apart. I see the finish line and though it was literally feet away, it felt like it was miles away. The darn strip for recording chip times was tantalizingly teasing me. I stumbled past the finish line. I pulled myself over the side and promptly hurled.
That, my dear readers, was success. I managed to hold it til the finish line.
When I finally composed myself, I checked my time and I was thrilled with my performance. While 39:20 isn’t a PR, it’s 9 seconds off my best time. I managed a sub-8:00 pace (7:52) for 5 miles. I feel good about how well I did.
Mile splits
- 8:15
- 7:35
- 7:52
- 7:39
- 7:46
Despite all the weaving I did in the first mile, Garmin recorded only an extra .03, so I must have ran really good tangents for the other miles.
This Saturday, I’ll be doing NYRR’s Dash to the Finish line, a 5K that goes through NYC and ends at the NYC Marathon’s finish line.
A Fast Paced Life 
Nice work! I have yet to hurl at a finish line, but I was almost hurled on when I was spectating once … Hope you avoided everyones shoes 😉
Hee hee. . . yes, I did. I was careful to move over to the side where no one was.
Congrats on Poland! Yea, the first mile has so many people crowded together and the only way to advance is to run in the grass. I was there too but had to run it slow due to a minor shin splint (and the NYC marathon is in a few days – oh no). I look forward to that Dash to the Finish post.
Good luck to you for the NYC Marathon! Hope the shin splint injury doesn’t bother you on Sunday.
Good job! Too bad you had to hurl, that’s never fun in public. Nice photo at the finish, you can see the hurt!
I never look all that great for my finish line photos, but this one. . .
I’m just really proud that I managed to keep it together til after I crossed.
Wow, you were flying. Good job. I hope to be seeing that NY Marathon finish line on Sunday. Keeping an eye on your weather for the weekend.
The downhill sections help me fly.
Yeah, I finally got around to looking at the weather forecast and now I realize why everyone was freaking out. Fingers crossed for good running weather.
Amazing! Sounds like you’re back to full form! I nearly hurled after my last 5-miler in Central Park. Something about that course. It’s rough. But I rather like the congestion in the first mile because it keeps me reined in. Have a great race on Saturday! I’ll be out there working.
The congestion is good for keeping me slow for the first mile too, but mentally I find it too frustrating despite its positives.
While I love the idea of running a race in NYC, I think the crowds would drive me nuts! I did a 5-miler in Baltimore last year that was bigger than I’m used to, and my first mile was soooo slooowww. I was super frustrated over it for most of the race.
Good thing you have a new race for the NYRR to seed you on 🙂 And only 9 seconds off your PR? That’s great for a 5 mile race!
Good luck in the 5k this weekend!
Thanks!
There are other smaller races in NYC (check out NYC Runs). I love their events, much smaller, but well run, and super cheap (with incredible bagels afterward).