Any other time, I would have hated the results. But I am happy.

There I went, into my race #95, knowing I wouldn’t PR and I was still happy. The weather was finally nice to run and race in and it’d be a great way to do some speedwork. Even if I am two weeks away from Boston with just one long run. Whatever, right? So I went in relaxed, looking for a training run, to get in below 50 minutes (so far from my last 10K at 44 mins last year) and I came back with a lot of happy

THE RACE

Getting there. Juan and I jogged to the start, a simple 1.5 miles Start. Super organized as always. I met my training partner Patricia in the corralqu she said she was shooting for 49, perfect, I though.

Weather. 45! Can it be any better? NO. I always say: over 42 is singlet weather. Booty shorts and singlet does it!

The Course. Is… OY. This is Central Park. A whole loop! CLOCKWISE. Rolling hills 75% of the time. And Harlem hill is WORSE in this direction. Not a PR-friendly course, barely any flat, but nothing also that you can’t do.

The Post Race.  I saw everyone I know there, so fun…! Plus the raffle excitement. I love this race! Oh oh and the main thing: BAGPIPES AND KILTS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MY RACE

Weather was nice, all was calm… but I was a mess… 15 minutes before the gun I felt like I had to go #2… TMI right? But if you’re reading this you quite probably are a runner!!! Well, I didn’t have time to get out of the corral, go to the portapotty and start in my corral, so I decided I’d do my best to hold on to it (somehow..?). Is this too gross? Well, I really didn’t think I’d make it. But I had the same gut feeling in Berlin and it lasted 11 miles… I only had to do 6 here! I hoped it’d go away and lined up.

My goal was to be under 50, which is quite far from my PR but oh well, this is where I am now. Patricia and I started together and literally switched leads for about 3 miles. I was feeling ok but she had a lot more than me and I felt I was starting to burn gas so I decided to let her go early on (smart move!! she’d go on to finish a minute before me!). The whole race went well as usual, I had nothing crazy to say about it, more than my stomach held up, YEY. Going up the hill in the last .1 is always hard but had to get done:

The race ended fine… I never run out of steam but I don’t I run the best I could have, I just really wasn’t sure how to read my body with whatever was going on in my tummy..! If you look at my laps it looks like I was running two 5Ks instead of a 10k…! Ugh.

NYRR Race Results, Photos, and Recap here.

Anyway, we had some fun after with my friends, team mates, the guys in kilts, the bagpipers, the raffle and the band there (who were they??? so osom!)

Soon after we headed home, showered, complained about how tired we went and headed out before noon to walk through the park (again) to go watch some of the Scotland Parade. I really do LOVE bagpipes!!! Here’s a couple of pics!

And then… we were DESTROYED… seriously, a 10K can drain the LIFE out of you! Hot chocolate, gnocchi and bed!

And with my official time of 47:41, the WINNER of my Guess My Finish time contest is… 

Elaine, pick a prize from the list and lmk!

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