We decided to try a new race, the New York City 10k. Maria had seen an ad online and asked if we wanted to sign up. Looking at the website, they had a nice t-shirt and medal so Donna and I were in. Rich decided to do it and it would be his last race in NY before he moves back to England at the end of this year. I had been meaning to sign up for the race but when I got around to it 2 weeks before the race it had reached its capacity of 2000 people and was sold out. Hema had signed up to do it but could not get off work. So I offered to buy her bib from her.
Pre-race:
They had a website to sign up. It could definitely use some work. I don't think they put up the course map until a few days before the race. The link to the results page still says "coming soon." But at least they put the link to the results on their Facebook page.
Packet pick-up was at the Flatiron Nike store. Hema sent me a copy of her id so I was able to pick up her packet. A standard cotton t-shirt came with the registration. But for $5 more you could upgrade to tech material.
Morning of the race:
The race took place on Roosevelt Island, which is a small island between Manhattan and Queens. Donna, Maria and Rich took the subway to the start.
I'm not a big fan of the F train because it is 2 stories underground and you have walk 4 blocks from the 6 train to get there. I had planned to take the 6 train to tram. The tram runs every 15 mins. I, of course, overslept and missed my window to make the last tram that would get me there on time. So I hoped in a cab and rode to the start.
They were already in the corral when I got there. It was a small race by New York standards. I found them. Maria breathed a deep sigh of relief when I got there. Apparently, it makes her nervous that I always end up gettin to the race at the last minute. The race started a few minutes after I got there. Time for a quick picture and we were off.
The course:
The course was a double loop of Roosevelt Island. The first loop was slightly shorter than the second. You are on the water for the whole course so you get a nice view of the Manhattan skyline. There are a few spots where the course is kind of narrow. So on the first loop there was a bit of a bottleneck. By the second loop the field had thinned out a bit. There was one point where the sidewalk we were running on was really narrow and there were some low trees. Definitely had to be aware to dodge the tree branches. But the course was pretty flat.
Marriage of Money and Real Estate (Tom Otterness)
On the second loop I stopped really quick to snap a photo of the Tom Otterness sculptures. There were on my list of NY photo ops so I managed to get my pictures in under a minute as to not add much time to my finish time.
I crossed the finish line in 56:46. That's a 9:08 min/mile pace. I'm working on getting under 9 min/mile for a 10k. If I did not stop for pictures maybe I could have made it.
I have to say it was a nice medal. It is ironic that it the biggest medal I had and it is only for a 10k. My marathon medals are not this big. I also like that they put the skyline in the word Finisher on the ribbon.
Course Support:
They had one water station on the west side of the island that you passed between mile 1 & 2 and 4 &5. Which is enough for a 10K. They had markers every mile with clocks.
At the finish they had water, Gatorade and granola bars. Back at the Fireman's field that had a finish festival with music. We walk over so Rich could get his bag out of gear check.
Then we took the subway back to Manhattan and meet Rich's wife Charlotte for brunch.
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