Race Report – Joe Kleinerman 10K. NYC

Joe Kleinerman 10k Map
12/9/2007

I missed the cut-off for online signup, so I had to schlep into NYC on Saturday before the race and sign up in person. I decided to make a whole afternoon adventure out of the trip, so after running into NYRRC and grabbing some lunch, I drove over to Brooklyn to visit R&A Cycles. I spent about an hour talking bikes with the staff and drooling over all the sweet rides, frames & gear in the shop.

I actually sported a semi feeling up the awesome Felt DA frameset (2007 model), and it really wanted to come home with me too, but I knew that my heart belonged to another (her 1 year younger sister) and handed it back to the staff and headed home.

Fast forward to race day…

Driving into NYC early on a December morning is a thing of beauty. Just under an hour from my door to a different, CHEAPER parking garage. The day before it was more like and hour-forty five.

I get to the race start at the 102nd street entrance, and find my way over the baggage check-in. I grab a seat on the rocks overlooking the baggage check area, and get into my mental zone. Within a few minutes I’m starting to get pretty cold, and start to worry about how I’m going to make it through the race without freezing my chest or ears. I have compression shorts and a light set of tights for the legs, but only light, long-sleeved technical shirt, light gloves and an IM running cap. I have a heavy, hooded sweatshirt and knit cap for after the race, and I consider running in the hoodie & cap, but don’t want to get overheated. I don’t mind running hot, but the hoodie and cap are all I have for after the race. What to do?

I decided to just hang loose until my warmup time (about 25 min before the race). I never really felt any warmer, despite walking around a bit, so I dropped by bag off at the check-in, and headed out to warmup with the hoodie & cap. About 1/2 way through my warm up, I knew that there would be no way I could run in the hoodie. It was cotton and would hold every drop of sweat that left my body and would weigh a ton at the end of the race. When I got back to my bag, I left the hoodie & cap behind, put on my lucky IM cap and jogged over to the race start. I got there with less than 2 minutes to go until the race start. Perfect!

The horn sounded and we stood there. And stood there, and stood there some more. Eventually we started to shuffle off toward the starting line, and almost 2 minutes later, I hit the mats and started my watch. Although I said that I wasn’t going to race with the Garmin, I really wanted to have the race mapped on MotionBased, since it was going to be in Central Park. I have a lot of non-athlete friends that live outside of the metro-area and they wanted to see the maps.

I had seeded myself midway between the 7 and 8 min mile pace sections, but it seems like any self-seeding was random, at best. I got blocked in a bunch of times at the very start and was starting to worry about how hard I would have to go later to make up the time. After the 1st 1/2 mile, I managed to get in behind a lovely young lady who seemed to be hitting the same pace I wanted, and off we went.

I missed the 1st mile marker, but it must have been fast because about 3/4 of the of the 1st mile is sharply downhill. Then it climbs back up a good bit. I like this course better than Giralda because the hills aren’t as steep or long. At mile 2 I hit my watch: 15:46. Gaak. 7:38 avg? WTF? Where did THAT come from.

I’m a dead man…

I keep plugging away, but it’s pretty apparent that my young pacer-girl is going a bit faster than I can hang with, and still finish strong. I let her go on and try to focus on my form and hitting the course apexes.

Mile 3 goes by (dammit, I missed the water station!) 7:38. No freakin’ way. My Garmin has to be broken…

Miles 2.5 to 4 are pretty much downhill. but then you start to climb. My stomach is starting to complain a bit, so I make sure I hit the water station and get a gulp down to settle it. Mile 4 comes into view and my watch tells me 7:48. I’m starting to FEEL like I’m running that fast. I haven’t been watching my HR, but I’m sure it’s showing “911”.

At mile 4.5, my stomach decides that it wants to be a spectator for the rest of the race. There is a pretty steep up hill for a little bit more than 1/4 mile. I was pushing myself pretty hard up that hill, and wasn’t paying attention to how I felt until I started to gag. That was a big indicator that I needed to ease back. I also knew that I would not be able to get back up to speed quickly, so I began to run smarter. I would back off a bit on the inclines, but push harder on the descents, and let my body tell me what to do on the flats.

Mile 5 came by in 8:07 – stupid stomach, stupid hills..

The rest of the course is flat to downhill, with a nice big downhill finish from 5.5 miles. My stomach was turning cartwheels but I thought I might have a PR coming, so I jumped into the hurt locker, and dropped the hammer. Mile 6 went by in 7:43 and the last 2/10 in 1:34. 48:41 by my watch, and a new PR by 46 seconds. Sweet!

I’m just thankful that I had given my breakfast time to get past my stomach, otherwise I would have shared it with the spectators & volunteers. Eeek.. I’ve gotta figure out how to keep the nausea at bay at the end of these hard sets.

When I got home I got an e-mail from my coach indicating that I didn’t have any results?

W-T-freakin-F?

I log into NYRR’s web site and search for my name, and my bib number (7385). Nothing. BUMMER!

I made a conscious point to stomp the starting mats and hammered through the finish mats so I’ve got no idea why there is no official time for me. That puts me 0-2 for official times in my 1st two PR goals.

I hope that this nonsense stops before tri-season starts!

HR Chart here:

And for the data-obsessed: Motion-Based link: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=156449&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=4578051