Let's Go For A Run

I had been thinking and thinking about the fact that I really wanted to run part of the NYC Triathlon course (essentially miles 1-4), which gets you from transition to the top of the Harlem Hill on the East Side. I know that if I can make it that far in the race, I should be good to go.

Drew really wanted to go for a run after work today, so he humored me in my quest to try out the route. Even though I've done it lots of times on my own, I've never run from the West Side Highway and 72nd Street, which changes everything!

We walked to 72nd Street and into Riverside Park. From there, we scoped out the transition area and then we were off. The first uphill is going to suck. It sucked today. It'll suck when I'm on rubbery legs off the bike. You should not have to run uphill immediately. That should be outlawed!

We actually got really lucky with the stoplights on 72nd Street (which obviously won't be a factor on race day), but we made all the lights going into the Park, so we didn't have to stop, which was really nice. I see now, looking at the map, that we made a mistake in the route, so we added in a little bit of extra mileage by not heading North right away on that driveway. Oh well. I guess that'll make the miles go by that much faster on Sunday!

I tried to keep track of the miles by hitting the lap button on my old watch (not a HR monitor) and this is what I came up with:

Mile 1: 10:45
Mile 2: 11:41
Mile 3: 12:43
Mile 4: 8:54

I know that Mile 3 was long and believe me, it felt like it at the time, too! Running up the first half of Harlem Hill was okay. Running down was better. And then I don't know what happens to me. I think the anticipation of that long uphill just gets to me. I made it up the second side of the hill (by Lasker Pool) and then I was just done. I wanted to be done running. So, we walked for a few seconds, ran for another minute or so and then that was that.

I had completed my goal and I was on a mission to get myself some Gatorade. That was all I wanted. Except all the vendors in the Park had packed up for the night and gone home. Don't they know that's not allowed? After walking for a while, Drew said that he was starving, so we decided to run the last mile back to the bottom of the Park to get ourselves some dinner.

We went to Whole Foods for dinner and spent a ridiculous amount of money on food. They don't sell Gatorade, but they do sell Vitamin Water (on sale 5 for $5) and I sucked down two of them faster than you can imagine! Totally worth it.

I will say that I was a little concerned that I was so slow today, but I'm trying to remember that this race on Sunday is supposed to be fun!

Running #1
Time: 44:03
Distance: 4.00 miles
Pace: 11:02/mile

Running #2
Time: 11:09
Distance: 1.00 miles
Pace: 11:09/mile