Friday night, I stayed at my friend Erin's apartment since she lives super close to the park and we woke up this morning, got dressed and ran to the park. In hindsight, I probably should have taken this 2 mile trip to the starting line a little bit slower but it didn't hurt me too much. Erin wasn't registered for the race, so we separated at the starting line and I started off and planned to meet her later.
Prospect Park is not terribly big but this race was huge! 4,000 runners in a 4-miler? Crazy! Because of the high volume, we were corralled and getting through the first mile was brutal! The crowd didn't thin out until almost the 2nd mile! I also experienced the rudest encounter with another runner. I'm running the tangents and there's another girl next to me and about a step ahead of me. We weren't on top of each other but we were pretty close. All of a sudden, before I even knew what hit me (literally) I had the wind practically knocked out of me by a guys arm being thrust across my chest as he literally ran through me and this girl using his arms to force both of us out of his way and sprinted forward. I caught my breath and RAN after him and screamed ASSHOLE and then continued on in my own merry way. (Excuse my language, but this was a very merited insult, I think!)
Anyway, I clocked Mile 1 in 8:08 and hit the 2nd mile at 7:58 before hitting the hills of the park which weren't too bad the first time around and finishing in 34:23. Not too shabby!
I met Erin at the Finish and continued on for another 7 miles to get in my long run in for the day and hit the hills twice more...the last time was brutal! Erin and I finished our run and headed to brunch before she headed to work and I went off to study!
It was a great day for a race and a great day for a run and now I'm 8 races away from guaranteed entry into NYC 2012! (We'll see if I get through the lottery system for 2011 though first, right?)
Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!
Congrats on the race, that is a great time! Asshole runners are assholes, there's no nice word lol, I used to run varsit cross country in high school and people become so competitive that they do crazy things to get a step ahead, especially at the start of a large race, it's actually crazy :/ But I'm glad you pushed on :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great weekend :)
xoxo
Jenna
Great race and even more impressive that you added on some more miles! I ran a 5 mile race in Prospect Park last year and really enjoyed it. It's beautiful there!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your time, that's awesome! I had a similar encounter with a male runner last week on the Charles River. The path is so wide yet he thought it was okay to pass me while nearly brushing my side! Then stalked me the rest of the run... anyway - AWESOME JOB!
ReplyDeleteJust searched Google for "Al Gordon Classic" since the girls are talking about doing it... and you popped up. Small world! Are you doing it again this year?
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