Sri Chinmoy Thanksgiving Day 5K 2020

With the exception of 2015, when I was injured, I have run the PPTC 5 Mile Turkey Trot every year since 2012 (which preceded my PPTC membership). Alas, this year it was a virtual event, and I was just really itching to attempt a real race; there were, shockingly, several options from which to chose. I opted for this one because, being in Queens, it was closer than the ones on Long Island, and it was a familiar-to-me course that is also pretty flat.

I have no idea why I keep going after flat races when I know that I tend to run faster on gently rolling hills. But whatever.

When registering, you had to enter your anticipated time. I said 20:00, even though I was hoping for faster than that, because I was pretty sure no sub-20 would my way come.

A few days before the race, I received my bib and shirt in the mail, along with my assigned wave. I was under the impression that the waves were assigned based on one’s predicted pace, and this event historically hasn’t attracted that fast a female field, so I was a little surprised to be in the second wave, but then reasoned that this was a good thing because Sri Chinmoy races are old-school: there is no chip timing. Starting at the very front is the only way to get your official time to match your Garmin time.

The temperature was great. The wind and precipitation… not so much. Thankfully, it wasn’t raining much before I started, and it didn’t come down too heavily during the run either, but honestly, I’d rather have a soaking downpour than the winds to which one tends to be treated in Flushing Meadows Park.

I did not realize this at the time, but the reason I was in wave two was because wave one was all men. D’oh. What I did realize was that the woman next to me was wearing those ridiculous Alphaflys, and I just could. not. let myself be beaten by those.

I see your $275 Alphaflys and raise you a $0 pair of 1400v5s

Which is not to say she didn’t fly away from me at the start. She absolutely did. And I was running slower than I wanted to, but it was windy and I was crabby and I have no excuse other than that I suck, but since I was running and apparently in one piece I was like, okay, fine, I’ll come in second again.

But then I caught up to her halfway through the race (exactly halfway: my watch read 1.56 miles) and passed her. I don’t know if it’s the Alphaflys or her gait or a combination of the two, but her steps were quite loud, so I didn’t have to worry about her sneaking up on me again because I would have heard. If I could hear over the sound of the wind, anyway. (That’s the only reason I didn’t slow down once I passed her, even though I knew my goal was so out the window it wasn’t even funny.)

Do I look like I’m at mile 3 of a 5K? No, I do not, and that is annoying.

The pre-race request was that we not hang around after the event, and I was quite happy to comply. Particularly since there was no need to wait for my official time: my wave started at 9:10, I crossed the finish line at 30:44 on the clock, that is that.

According to my Garmin, I ran 3.15 miles in 20:47, 6:36/mi.

And very consistently, at that! (It also said I burned 72 calories, which is kind of ridiculous, even if my supposed 148 HR was accurate, which I am pretty sure it was not. Yeah, I could have and should have run faster, but not so much faster that this was easy.)

Officially, 3.1 miles in 20:44, 6:40/mi. 14/172 OA, 1/77 F, and 1/69 F0-49. (Sri Chinmoy races only have two age groups… 0-49 and 50-99. Guess if you’re over 99, you’re out of luck.)

Two days later, this showed up in the mail.

Winning races is cool, and all, but I’d really, really, really like a PR one of these days!

Though I am eternally thankful to be able to run at all, and beggars, choosers, so I’ll just be glad with that for now.

Not Another Turkey Trot 5K 2020

Since the pandemic hit, I’ve run a slew of 5K time trials. Most of them were on my apparently magical track, because I kept running them faster and faster, at a pace I know I can’t manage on the roads. So I was quite eager to finally run a real 5K race, and started to register for one in Eisenhower Park — a nice flat course. Except that after going through the whole process, a little footnote at the end alerted me that hey, Nassau County stipulates that this race is not open to residents of the five boroughs. Thanks a lot; you couldn’t have mentioned that earlier?!

So it was kind of a reactionary thing that I registered for this race in Alley Pond Park instead. Which makes no sense, given that Alley Pond Park is not flat and fast. But logic has never been my strong point. At the very least, I guess it would give me some extra practice at getting back into the racing mindset.

I remembered!

The weather was pretty good for racing, I suppose. Not as warm as I’d prefer, but it could have been worse, I guess. Bonus of these small events with parking pretty much on the starting line: I can run a little bit of my warmup in a fleece and gloves, and then dump them in my car and keep going.

I did that warmup on the race course, because I needed some recon to ensure I wouldn’t get lost en route! It was very clearly marked, so that wouldn’t be an issue. It would be three one-mile loops, which I prefer in such cases, because it cuts down on the opportunity to veer off-course once you know where you’re going. However. The first quarter mile was uphill, and the tarmac was not in great shape, but it was also covered in a bed of leaves so you couldn’t actually see what was underfoot. I didn’t love that. But it was good to know.

There were three waves to this race, and I had selected the first one (which I tend to do because I am good at stressing out and I always worry that there won’t be any parking left if I choose a later wave). So off we went, at 8:30 AM.

The first lap was actually 1.1 miles — we started on the grass before crossing the finish line for the first one-mile loop. There was another woman right ahead of me, and though I passed her within a couple of minutes, I spent the whole race hearing footsteps behind me and thinking it was her, which would have motivated me to run faster, except it wouldn’t necessarily mean anything if I beat her because someone in a later wave could then come along and beat me.

And I was not running fast. I mean, “fast” being relative, and all, but my pace was closer to what I’d want to run for a half marathon, not a 5K! I finished the first loop in over seven minutes, which I suppose removed some of the pressure to PR because that was clearly not going to happen. So I just tried not to slow down too much in the second loop, only to keep those footsteps from catching me.

(They belonged to the guy in green. Nice to know that now!) After the second loop, I figured that I could at least aim to finish in under 21:00, because it would be truly pathetic if I didn’t run this faster than the 10K last month.

Which I managed, just barely. Yippee for me?

Garmin recorded 3.09 miles (so nice) in 20:56, 6:46/mi.

Officially, 3.1 miles in 20:55, 6:44/mi. 3/101 OA, 1/48 F, and 1/9 F30-39 (I guess?). Not only did no women from later waves finish faster than I did, the one whom I assumed was hot on my tail the whole way wound up around ninety seconds back. Again, lovely to know in retrospect…

Not exactly earth-shattering. But I ran a race, I survived, and I guess that’s the most important thing. (And then I got horribly lost during my cooldown because I was trying to run the perimeter of the park, but when that intersected with the Grand Central Parkway I couldn’t go any farther and so I went back into the park, except it was an entrance to the trails, and then I had to run a couple of “where the hell am I?” miles before I thankfully, finally, spotted a race marker cone.)

Whoo. Victory.