Race Report: Miles for Hope 5K

A month or so ago, I started poking around on the internets to see if I could find a local race to run while I was in NYC. My dates were, a bit constrained, but I found a 5K in Riverside Park that was part of Miles for Hope's fundraising efforts and registered for it.

Bib pick up and race day registration started at 8:00 and the race was set to start at 9:00 yesterday morning. I got up early, drank some water, got dressed, and then went to my local Starbucks to have a small coffee and a small breakfast. At about 7:45 I started heading down to the race start location. I picked up my bib without incident and walked around a little bit in the park. I used the port-a-pots and grabbed some extra tissue to blow my nose about a hundred times. The day was nice and cool - more like an early May morning than a day in late July - and I was hoping that my sinuses (which have been completely jacked since Wednesday) would miraculously clear up and that I might be able to PR or at least hit a time under 30 minutes. My only real goal for the race, though, was to give a hard effort so that I could get a sense of exactly where my conditioning (or lack thereof) is right now after a summer of low mileage and lots of disruptions.

 Soon we were lining up, only to be told we had lined up in the wrong direction. After a few minutes of introductions and instructions, we were off! The course started and ended in the same location, but it wasn't a straightforward loop. Riverside Park is terraced with three levels, and we were almost immediately faced with a steep hill up to the second terrace. It was a little frustrating because I don't think most of us runners had found our flow yet - the faster runners were still trying to pass people and a number of people started walking on that hill, which caused a bit of a slow down and a bottleneck situation. I remembered my goal of a hard effort and took the hill steady but strong and vaguely wondered how many more steep inclines there would be, as before the race I had overheard another runner telling his friend that there were a few hills in this race. I tried to keep myself running at a pace that was hard but sustainable and finished the first mile in 9:50.

For part of the second mile we were running along the river. I kept my eyes trained on some runners just ahead of me and tried to slowly close the gap between them. I was having some trouble regulating my breathing as I couldn't fully breathe through my nose and drainage was causing me to have trouble breathing through my mouth. I finished the second mile in 9:38.

We looped back into the park and I lost a few seconds hacking up some crud. I kept challenging myself to put forth a hard effort. The finish line was in sight and it seemed like a flat straight shot to, or so I thought, until one of the course marshals directed us back up one of the terraces. This is where I blew up. It was the fourth or fifth hill in the course and I just was not getting enough air to sustain my effort. I walked up the hill. I started running again, but had to hack up some more crud before descending down the terrace and giving it my all the last .12. My last mile split was 10:41.

I finished with a chip time of 31:21. I was a little disappointed in the last mile, but the first two miles have given me some hope that my conditioning isn't as bad as I thought it was. If I can shave two minutes off my 5K time, I can have a new PR. It was a beautiful day to run a race and a beautiful place to do it. The Miles for Hope volunteers were friendly and cheerful. There was one water stop during the race and plenty of water, sports drink, fruit, bagels, and coffee at the finish. I just had a few grapes and water, though, because I had brunch plans for a bit later.

Now if I can just get any runs in at all over the next week with the moving and cross-Canada drive, I will be satisfied.