My Emerald Nuts
It's New Year's Day, and I'm at home attempting to load myself with caffeine so that I can actually be productive and get some work done.
Last night I did NYRR's Emerald Nut's Midnight Run in Central Park. I wasn't very excited about this event. I've always said that the last thing I want to be doing at the stroke of midnight on January 1st is running outside in the cold, which I can do anytime. My New Year's has always seen me with a group of friends, inside where it's warm, toasting the New Year with a drink in my hand. I actually considered bailing from the race at the last moment, but considering I didn't have a back up plan, had paid, and told everyone I was going, I figured I may as well go through with it. Plus there were a lot of Flyers doing the race, and I also thought that given the recent ridiculously warm weather, if there was going to be a year that I spent any time outside, this was the year. Plus, given my extremely low expectations, I was bound to be have a better time than I thought I would, right?
Well, sort of. The good time that I had was purely based on the company of friends that I shared during the pre- and post-race festivities. I talked to some nice new Flyers that I hadn't chatted with before, and caught up with other friends, while enjoying wine. When we made it to the park though, I got separated from everyone amidst the utter chaos of the event. I entered the field at the 7 min. pace marker and at the countdown to midnight had none of my friends with me. That truly sucked! The fireworks went off and the field started to slowly move, and I thought: Great -this is how I'm going to spend the first moments of the New Year: in a 4-mile race with none of my friends around... I had no interest in that so I stepped out of the pack at the 6 min. pace marker and considered just packing it in and going home. I didn't, though, and went to plan B: I stepped up onto the wooden guard rail and, steadying myself with the support for the NYRR pace banner, I surveyed the crowd for Flyers. I saw a couple that I din know early in the crowd, but waited to see some of the friends I had come in with. I was a long long time that I stood there as thousands of people passed by, and I was just about ready to give up, when right at the back of the crowd, I saw my friends. I hopped in and they welcomed me back.
Now, I'm not the fastest runner on the planet, but this was tediously slow. We were crwling through the crowd at the back of the pack. I saw a couple of Essex Runners and chatted with them for a bit, and while doing so, inattentively almost mowed down a pair of walkers at about a half mile into the race (I had been drinking, remember). I apologized, although at the time I also thought it quite funny. They were very pissed. Finally, one of my fellow Flyers was also growing more and more impatient and frustrated with the high density and snail's pace of the crowd and the two of us picked it up and separated from the group. Minus a couple of bottlenecks, we settled into a nice jog, and chatted about marathons, running, and her ex-boyfriend, who was also running the race. I didn't know her before the start of the night, so the viewpoint and stories were novel to me and made the time pass quickly.
We finished the race in with 49:27 on the clock. That works out to a 12+ minute pace, which is slower than a brisk walk for me, but considering I didn't cross the start line for over 10 minutes after the gun went off, I figure our pace realistically averaged around 9:30, and much faster in the final miles. Anyway, it was a PW any way you slice it.
There were costumes, though, which made the race somewhat entertaining. Some of our group participated in a spoof of Lance Armstrong's NYC marathon entourage, which was worth a good smile. I saw a lot of Santas, a spider-man, a skeleton crew, reindeer, and lots of other crazy stuff that left me not knowing what to make of it.
After the finish, the Flyers met up again at the baggage area, and after a few photos, most of the group parted ways and headed home. A handful of us went back with our host to the pre-party venue and chatted over beers until the early morning hours. Over all it was a fine time, but I think for 2008 I'll go back to doing my traditional indoors New Year's celebration.
Last night I did NYRR's Emerald Nut's Midnight Run in Central Park. I wasn't very excited about this event. I've always said that the last thing I want to be doing at the stroke of midnight on January 1st is running outside in the cold, which I can do anytime. My New Year's has always seen me with a group of friends, inside where it's warm, toasting the New Year with a drink in my hand. I actually considered bailing from the race at the last moment, but considering I didn't have a back up plan, had paid, and told everyone I was going, I figured I may as well go through with it. Plus there were a lot of Flyers doing the race, and I also thought that given the recent ridiculously warm weather, if there was going to be a year that I spent any time outside, this was the year. Plus, given my extremely low expectations, I was bound to be have a better time than I thought I would, right?
Well, sort of. The good time that I had was purely based on the company of friends that I shared during the pre- and post-race festivities. I talked to some nice new Flyers that I hadn't chatted with before, and caught up with other friends, while enjoying wine. When we made it to the park though, I got separated from everyone amidst the utter chaos of the event. I entered the field at the 7 min. pace marker and at the countdown to midnight had none of my friends with me. That truly sucked! The fireworks went off and the field started to slowly move, and I thought: Great -this is how I'm going to spend the first moments of the New Year: in a 4-mile race with none of my friends around... I had no interest in that so I stepped out of the pack at the 6 min. pace marker and considered just packing it in and going home. I didn't, though, and went to plan B: I stepped up onto the wooden guard rail and, steadying myself with the support for the NYRR pace banner, I surveyed the crowd for Flyers. I saw a couple that I din know early in the crowd, but waited to see some of the friends I had come in with. I was a long long time that I stood there as thousands of people passed by, and I was just about ready to give up, when right at the back of the crowd, I saw my friends. I hopped in and they welcomed me back.
Now, I'm not the fastest runner on the planet, but this was tediously slow. We were crwling through the crowd at the back of the pack. I saw a couple of Essex Runners and chatted with them for a bit, and while doing so, inattentively almost mowed down a pair of walkers at about a half mile into the race (I had been drinking, remember). I apologized, although at the time I also thought it quite funny. They were very pissed. Finally, one of my fellow Flyers was also growing more and more impatient and frustrated with the high density and snail's pace of the crowd and the two of us picked it up and separated from the group. Minus a couple of bottlenecks, we settled into a nice jog, and chatted about marathons, running, and her ex-boyfriend, who was also running the race. I didn't know her before the start of the night, so the viewpoint and stories were novel to me and made the time pass quickly.
We finished the race in with 49:27 on the clock. That works out to a 12+ minute pace, which is slower than a brisk walk for me, but considering I didn't cross the start line for over 10 minutes after the gun went off, I figure our pace realistically averaged around 9:30, and much faster in the final miles. Anyway, it was a PW any way you slice it.
There were costumes, though, which made the race somewhat entertaining. Some of our group participated in a spoof of Lance Armstrong's NYC marathon entourage, which was worth a good smile. I saw a lot of Santas, a spider-man, a skeleton crew, reindeer, and lots of other crazy stuff that left me not knowing what to make of it.
After the finish, the Flyers met up again at the baggage area, and after a few photos, most of the group parted ways and headed home. A handful of us went back with our host to the pre-party venue and chatted over beers until the early morning hours. Over all it was a fine time, but I think for 2008 I'll go back to doing my traditional indoors New Year's celebration.
Labels: races, running, social life
posted by Skylight at 4:10 PM
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