This morning I made my triumphant return to the NYRR race scene. I write that with great sarcasm as my "triumph" involve a paltry 1.7-miles, which is by far the shortest distance I've ever covered in Central Park. But since I wasn't sure what my legs had in them, I thought I'd do something I could enjoy--and finish--as my fist race back post-baby.
As luck would have it, NYRR was hosting its Norway Run (the aforementioned 1.7-miler) as part of its Norweigian Festival, which also included a half-marathon (so not for me right now!). So Mark, Eamon, and I rose bright and early and scooted to the Park so I could toe the line for the first time in five months. When the gun went off, I quickly realized I should have started up at the front of the group, as I was stuck in the middle with some slow pokes. So I spent the first few minutes weaving and dodging through the crowd until I found some space and picked up the pace. Not wanting to die out there, I kept things conservative but quick enough that I was feeling the burn as I rounded the corner to the finish line. There, I saw my little baby (and my baby daddy), got a huge surge of energy, and flew into the chute.
Based on the pace of my runs of late, I was hoping to dip under 14 minutes. But much to my surprise, I crossed the line at 12:04, which breaks down to 7:05 pace! That put me at 10th out of 215 people in my age group and 35th overall (out of almost 900 women). I know this is really nothing to brag about, but I'm happy about my somewhat quick recovery from having my little nine-pounder. Now I just have to keep that pace up for a 5K!
After the race, we headed down to our old 'hood for a nice little breakfast with Nandita. Keren joined us for a bit and we sat and chatted outside of Grey Dog. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon with the 'rents and Sam (while Leezie was hard at work). It was a quintessential fall-in-New York day, and we could have spent hours and hours outside. Just gorgeous--and lots of fun with the two little ones!
No comments:
Post a Comment