shades of college

yeah, even though i went to a "party school" for college, i rarely partook in the activity of drinking earlier in the day (e.g., "kegs and eggs" around St. Patrick's Day)...ok, there was ParkFest in the spring...and opening ceremonies for Greek Week...but today kinda felt like a throwback to those college days.

Today was the Coogan's 5K (I'm too lazy to write out the full name) and as you all know, short races are not my favorite, especially when I have to travel a distance for it (5K's in NJ were an exception since I stayed at the parentals and could drive instead of rely on public transportation.) BCG was trying to talk me into running and I struck a compromise-only if we front-loaded. It's 4 miles up Broadway from the west 80s, so why not? We got the "frontloading queen" Runner26 to join us too.

This morning I was like "why the hell am I doing this..." Running up Broadway felt like mountain climbing and my legs were just not getting with the program. Finally we made it up to 168th and Broadway with plenty of time to drop our bags and line up (and just want to add, all 3 of us looked like triplets with our matching black Flyer long-sleeve shirts. I just wish I had decided to wear a white hat too! :) )

The starting horn sounded, somewhat unexpectedly. Part of me really didn't want to race this thing, but the other part of me was discouraged by the sluggish miles beforehand and just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible (and I didn't even have my iPod on me!), so I just decided to try and tempo it as I did last week. I can say, there are 2 reasons why this would not be an ideal PR course-course is way too crowded (especially the parts where we are restricted to one side of the street) and monster hills, worse than Central Park. Both those factors slowed me down, though the downhill mile 3 + .1 was welcomed.

Splits according to my watch: 8:55/9:01/8:12/:46-26:54, 8:40 pace (dammit, the jig is up, NYRR fixed the times...)

OK run, I guess...though still missing my motivation to race...

...but not the motivation to partake in the post-run festivities at Coogan's. The Flyer turnout was quite low and they left on the early side, but I hung out with Uptown Girl, Sempre Libera and a bunch of their other TRD teammates and downed 3 pints of beer (or something close to that) in 2+ hours...a leisurely brunch on the west side later (I was kinda wary of sampling the Coogan's food), before we knew it, it was 3 pm...a shower and a nap or 2 later, where the hell did the day go?

But I guess I need it every once in awhile. And I may even be convinced to do this one again next year...