After Saturday’s 21.3 miler (which felt like 25 with all the hiking, the trailing, the picture taking, and the 87 degree weather), I managed to refuel, hydrate, do an ice bath, stretch, and the whole post-long run routine in less than two hours to go right back out. By the time I got back home and went to sleep it was 2 am. Ooops. Sunday was the Fifth Avenue Mile but I was so tired I decided to skip the racing; what’s the point of doing the Mile if I won’t be able to bring any game? None. I still headed out to support my friends racing and watch the big races. I don’t care how tired I was, I was not missing this!
The Mile is organized in heats all throughout the morning by gender, division and levels. It’s such an exciting event… it’s a painful race, but (if you’re lucky) it’s over pretty soon. They stage it on the world-famous Fifth Avenue, from the Metropolitan Museum of Arts steps, to the south of Central Park where the Ritz Plaza, FAO Schwarts, and the Apple store are located. Can you imagine running down a traffic-free Fifth Avenue? It’s ridiculous.
This is what the Start area looks like:
See the hill ahead, OUCH.
A school bus goes right before your wave with your checked bag. By the time you finish your mile, your stuff is already there waiting for you!
Down the hill! That thing is scary when you’re sprinting like this.
After I saw my team mates go, I ran towards the finish line on the sidewalk. Then, this guy stopped me and asked me if I was Kara Goucher!!!! I thought he was joking (or trying a new pick up line I hadn’t heard of?). Yeah, of course, and I just gave birth to a baby 36 hours ago!!
How could I look like her? Really??
Met up with the team, we took pictures
and then just watched all the other heats with Luciano. I love seeing the older people run. It is the most inspiring thing in the world. I want to be just like them one day. I realized this past week that that is my ultimate goal as a runner, to stay healthy and run until I don’t want to anymore!
Anyway, soon enough, the elite women are starting to warm up around Fifth Avenue, and two seconds later they are off. Everything they do just looks fast to me! We were positioned right by the finish line and we were lucky that the NYRR people had a big screen so we knew what was going on before they got to the Finish line.
Erin Donohue was giving me chills, leading and pushing. She ran a “Pre” race, all guts…. and two seconds later, they were here!
and just as fast, they were gone, in a blur!! Literally.
As they run past us I was screaming as if Shannon (Rowbury) had stolen my favorite purse… It is just SO exciting to see them run at that stage of a race. You can see EVERYTHING in their expressions, all the hours of training, all the mental concentration, all the pain, all that is waiting after that finish line, everything they’ve ever been and they are hoping to become is in their faces. Just like someone had split them open and poured out every single emotion, dream, and experience they ever had. It is just amazing. Check out the finish line picture NYRR got of them:
Crazy, right? These three were really on FIRE. TRIPLE HOT BLAZING FIRE.
And Shannon took over just in the last yards. Smart Woman.
Smart, and Brave to wait that long. But she knew. She knew exactly how much she had left and she knew exactly how much was needed and when it was needed. There’s just no price for that kind of brain when your body is going through all that excruciating pain. Call me Hyper-Impressed. Sara and Erin did impressive races as well, it was a tough race and they all deserve a huge medal. Erin, way to gut to it out too. Wow. These women are just WOW.
After their pain and my screaming…
Now, Blaise was behind me and he took this picture:
Is that REALLY my arm?? WOW. I was so surprised!! Pushups are good for something more that creating more curse words! YEY!
And I just saw the article RW published about Shannon’s win..
RW, your pictures are from last year!! Maybe you need someone like me there next year? Riiiight?? Check out the pictures I took last year, her outfit is quite similar but it’s not the same; you can tell by the #s on the side of her running buns! My pictures are from 2010, theirs are from 2009… ehem… Can you imagine ME with a press pass? HA. As if I needed one…!
Back to Sunday 2010, check out the crowd, a woman climbed onto a post… ay!
That is because the men are coming soon…
Part 2 is coming as fast too! (I promise! this runjournalism does take some serious time though!)
runningandthecity 