Queens 10K Race Recap 7/1/2012

Queens, baby, Queens!

(Brendan and I always say that. I don’t know why. It’s probably from the ahhh-mazing show King of Queens.)

In a word, the Queens 10K was HOT! I’m sure you’ve heard that already from the 3,964 other recaps. And perhaps from actually being in the NYC metro area on Sunday.

Anyway, I digress.

I had an unbelievably easy morning. I gave myself plenty of time to drive to Queens and surprisingly there was no traffic! THAT NEVER HAPPENS! I went over two bridges and drove on the outskirts of Long Island and I’ve never, ever not seen traffic in those areas. No matter what time of day. I was just a lucky lady!

I was there super early so I met up with Lora and Ashley pre-race. (They are the best! Have I mentioned we started a Ragnar Relay team? Oh, I have 15 times? Sorry.) I was already sweating. I was still hoping I’d be able to push the pace a little at this point. After the first two miles, I realized that a PR just wasn’t in the cards – my body was shouting “take it slow!” so that’s what I did. What’s the point in making myself sick in a race like this? I’ve felt the effects of heat exhalation before and totally wasn’t into that on Sunday. Or ever.

I enjoyed the race immensely – minus getting stuck behind an ambulance on a very small road; a whole group of us literally had to stop and walk for a couple minutes because the ambulance was trying to get through and was blocking the pathway. I understand that it was an ambulance and that was likely the only way they could drive, but still…it’s a good thing I had accepted that I was taking it easy, otherwise I would have been going crazy!

I loved running through Queens because when I first moved to NY, I went to the old Shea Stadium my second day here, as well as a bunch of times for games and concerts. I spent two summers on Long Island and I love that area.

We ran right past the new stadium!

July 5th is my 4-year anniversary of living in New York/New Jersey which is unbelievable to me. I’ll always have a spot in my heart for Long Island and running through Queens was a perfect way to commemorate my “making it” in NYC. (If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, right folks?!)

Anyway, NYRR had plenty of sprinklers and water (and sponges!) which definitely helped. But not quite enough – I ran my slowest 10K ever! Like, slower-than-my-Brooklyn-Half-10K-split slow. But I’m okay with it. I saw the speedsters Lora and Ashley again, cheering for me right near the finish line which gave me a tiny burst of energy. Ashley started to take a picture and got a perfect one of me waving my hands saying “don’t take a picture!”. I’m one of those people who gets super red in the face when running, no matter what temperature. Therefore you can imagine how much worse it was on Sunday. So glamorous.

Post-race we all hung out for a bit and cooled off. AKA continued sweating. I’m thankful these lovely ladies weren’t totally appalled by my disgusting-ness. Or if they were they didn’t act like it.

I also admired my fancy medal. Check off another 5-Borough Series race.

Naturally I missed my turn on the way out and ended up in the city instead of on the GW. Seeing as I was in the Lincoln Tunnel, I decided to visit my old place of residence/celebrate my 4-year NY anniversary by stopping in Hoboken and checking out the beautiful skyline views. Luckily, Ashley wasn’t too far away and decided to stop and grab lunch with me, which was perfect! We sat outside for about .5 seconds and then promptly retreated to find an air conditioned venue.

I felt like I was melting all day! (I felt so bad for all the animals outside! Does that bother anyone else?!)

Oh, I can’t believe I forgot to mention…no pain in this race! I didn’t even realize it until I was almost done. The past few months I’ve gone into each race in fear of some kind of injury popping up, but Sunday was great! Maybe it was because I slowed down, or maybe the heat warmed up my muscles. (Does it even work that way?!) Who knows. All I know is that I wasn’t in pain on Sunday, and didn’t feel any soreness at all on Monday. Obviously I didn’t push the pace at all, but this still makes me feel really good about upping my mileage so I can take on the Bronx 10-miler in September, along with RAGNAR (!!!), some other 10Ks and 5Ks, and the Staten Island Half (in October).

And, if everything goes as planned, I can hopefully register for the Philadelphia Marathon! (This is my official announcement I guess?)

Today I biked 10 miles again and ran 1.5 miles after the ride to test out how the ol’ legs would do when tired. So far, so good!

What do you all have planned for the 4th of July? It’s my FAVORITE holiday!! Please send cupcakes if you feel so inclined. Have fun and be safe! And get your sweat on, of course!