Shrieking Children and a Healthy Sheikh

Saturday afternoon and I sit outside my uber cool and totally unpretentious neighborhood café/wine bar on this glorious day. A pale blue sky punctuated by the occasional cloud and highlighted with a cool and refreshing breeze - what could be better…?

Perhaps some freaking silence! The deafeningly loud (and far too near) children and their armor piercing shrieks are driving me nuts! Even more irritating, if that’s possible at this point, is the fact that they are ruining my enjoyment of not only this peaceful afternoon but a rather nice Albarino... Damn children! I suppose I aught to be pleased that they are actually outside running around rather than eating Hostess Cupcakes, playing PS2 and sending other lethargic and borderline obese children nonsensical text messages, but I digress. Rather than ranting about ill-behaved children I shall focus on what I had intended to do which is to write up a race report on the New York Road Runners Healthy Kidney 10K.

I must admit that I was a little surprised that the Embassy of the United Arab Emerates was the primary sponsor of this event. What could the UAE have in common with the New York Road Runners Club? As it turns out Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, former president of the UAE had a kidney transplant here in the United States and is very thankful. I am very thankful for the fancy technical race tee shirt. (More here)

In short, I am pleased with the race and my performance. I was able to run a PR, not by much, but a PR none the less. I can’t really complain about my time in light of the fact that the guy who won, Austrailian Craig Mottram, missed a bonus $10,000 purse for breaking the course record by 3 seconds. (More here)

This race drew a larger than normal crowd and the chute was especially tight, even at the front. I spent the first half mile dodging race walkers and 10-minute milers but the pack eventually thinned and I turned in a 6:50 mile 1. I then settled in and focused on running my race.

The course made its way through the Harlem Hills in Central Park, which, for those of you who've not run them are pretty tough. Head down, eyes up, I leaned in and grinded them out. At the 5K mark I had a time of 21:23 and the more difficult half of the course was behind me. I finished the race with a time of 42:12, a personal record by about 30 seconds.

My next race is on Memorial Day in Woodstock, NY. It’s a 15K and I think I will try to run at a 7 minute per mile pace which would give me a finishing time of about 1:05:00. This may be optimistic for this distance particularly given the “very challenging” course but what the hell, aim high!