Race Recap: Colon Cancer 15K

Yesterday we ran the Colon Cancer 15k in Central Park. The hardest part of the entire race was getting me up and out the door. Friday I didn’t run because it was too cold and I almost copped out of this one too. Lucky for me, I have some people who keep me in check. Danny didn’t want to go and I had to be the driving force to get out of the apartment.

Once we got outside it wasn’t so bad..maybe it was the 3 layers I had under my vest. Whatever, I was semi-warm so I was loving the layers. I hate being cold when I run, even when I start. I would rather layer up and sweat then lose a layer or two in the beginning of my run.

We made it into the city by the skin of our teeth. Danny dropped me off and I picked up our bibs and t-shirts. Danny parked in a parking garage and met me at the start. I even put on the t-shirt for another layer. I was way more overdressed than the typical runner, but I didn’t care. I have rules about running below 30 degrees, and they don’t involve being outside. I made an exception for this run. Take a look at all my layers…and the fact I didn’t rip off the other half of my D-tag. I was sort of a mess, but whatever, the only thing it may affect is the pictures. I’m okay with it!

I was in the purple coral and Danny was in the orange because for some reason I didn’t input his pace. We compromised and hung out in the light blue coral, which was actually smart because we knew we wouldn’t be running an 8:45 pace. Miles 1-5 basically flew by. The Central Park hills were semi-tortourous because they really don’t stop the entire time.  I mean there are some pretty long-ish lengths of road that are flat or downhill, but all I could focus on was the hills.

I used the Nike GPS ap to keep track of our splits..even though I didn’t really understand how it was working. I couldn’t tell if the time they were telling me was our split or our average pace at that point. Whatever, it didn’t matter, we stayed below 10:00 and that was my goal.

Miles 5-7.5 were a mental game for me. I didn’t feel very fast and I just wanted to get to mile 8. I finally felt like I could keep going at mile 8.5, but was SO thankful for the finish. I tried to be thankful that I was out there racing today and take in Central Park, but my mind kept wandering to where I was in the mile. We finished strong at 1:32, I’ll take it. It was our first 15k and we have barely been training.

from Nike GPS app website

I went into this race with the mindset it would be a great training race for the Brooklyn half in May and I’m keeping that mind set. I think all things considered, our sort of lack of training, hills and the unseasonably cold weather we did well. I want to up my training now for the half, mainly by getting those long runs in consistently.  I also want to (maybe) work on speed because I just felt really slow the whole race, but I think that’s mainly because of all the hills.

Twice around Central Park is NOT easy and my Nike GPS app proved it after looking at the elevation. P.S. the Nike app deserves it’s own post. Best $1.99 I’ve ever spent on a running item. I’m proud of how we did today, I enjoyed conquering a new distance and a new temperature I don’t usually run in!

What are you proud of today?

Tagged as: 15k, central park, health-fitness, nike gps, nyc, race, run, running