PARK TO PARK 10K RACE RESULTS and a PR!!!!

NAPLES - New York Park to Park 10K

Distance: 6.2 Miles
Date/Time: July 13, 2008, 8:00 am
Location: Central Park, NYC
Weather: 71 deg., 81% humidity, wind 6 mph.

The official stats from the website: http://web2.nyrrc.org/cgi-bin/htmlos.exe/74298.1.462760704300000790

Bib # 3148
Gender/age: F43

Distance (miles): 6.2

Finish Time: 54:38

Pace Time: 8:48

Overall Place: 1,568 (out of 3,989 people)

Gender Place: 380 (out of 1,172)

Age Place: 21ST (out of 163 women ages 40-44)

AG Time: 51:33
AG Gender place: 379

Age-Graded%: 58.8%

Woke up at 4:30am. This is not getting any easier:) I SOOO wanted to hit snooze and go back to sleep, but I knew I had to meet my brother (I made a commitment), so I got up and did the usual pre race stuff. We got into Manhattan at 6:30, worked our way uptown. This race started and finished at 102nd street. Found a great spot to park, again FREE, on 92nd street. Walked up 10 blocks (last race, we had no time to warm up, so we made sure we got in early, and that we would have a nice walk before the race to get out the kinks:), about a half mile, and got our bibs and t-shirts and eventually hooked up with John B, Ronnie and Tommy. It was warm, but not too bad. We got over to the start about 15 minutes early, found our corral, and lined up about midway.

This race was cool. It was the Italian celebration and there was lots of Italian music blaring. Before we knew it, the gun went off and we were on our way. Took about 2 minutes to cross the start. I was stupid/competitive as always. I wanted to stay with John B, the one who runs an 8 minute pace, bad idea. Though, he did say he'd go out slow, but at the mile and a half mark, I told him to go on, as I was sucking air (even had visions of this race being a big fat DNF because it was so hot. LOL) But once John B was out of site, I relaxed and ran my race. Though at the 2.6 mile mark, I heard a crash, and someone next to me said you dropped something, sure enough, I turn around to look and I see a tiny silver thing on the ground. I dropped my nano. LOL I got out of the way, worked my way back, thankfully not knocking anyone over, and thankfully no one stepped on it, and picked it up. Not a scratch, UNBELIEVABLE!!! Now, I know you all are saying, what the hell did you have it in the first place. Well, usually I wear it on my wrist in a wrist band with the head phones, but today, I decided to run the race with no music (first time btw), and I clipped it to my fuel belt. Now you're wondering why carry it at all. LOL Well, I have the Nike+ system, and belong to a few online challenges through Nike+ and Runners+, so I had to have the nano to record my distance. Ok, Ok, I'm a bit competitive. LOL Well, some how it came loose, and if I had the headphones attached, I don't think it would have fallen, but I wanted to run this race with NO MUSIC. Anyway, no one was hurt THANKFULLY, and I lost a few minutes in time:( But I got right back in the race.

It was sooooo hot, they had hoses going at every water station, 5 I believe, and yup, I stood under all of them for about 15 seconds, then got my water, and drank some, and splashed a whole cup full over my head, at each water station. So, I'm guessing I lost about a minute and a half there too, but I really wonder if I would have finished had I not taken the walk breaks for the water, and not doused myself with water. So, all in all I'm pleased, it was a new PR, I didn't break 53:00 minutes, which was my goal, but I did run it 51 seconds faster than my previous 10K back on May 17th. So, I'm VERY excited.

Another thing that I learned about my Garmin and racing is it tracks everything. So even though this race was 6.2, at the finish line when I hit stop, my Garmin told me I ran 6.4 It takes in to account all the zig zagging I did to pass people in the beginning. I realize the course could be a little off, and the Garmin isn't exact, but all in all it is accurate, but when we finished I thought I ran the race in an 8:33 pace, which I was really excited about, but then I realized because the NYRR results page on the computer told me differently, that my Garmin time was SPOT on, that the distance was off by .2, meaning that when I was following the pace on the Garmin, it was actually off. Again, I did PR, so I'm happy, but I was running an average pace of 8:33 according to the Garmin (or so I thought), and I should have realized it was off, and tried to go faster.

All you people out there with Garmins, how do you account for the discrepancy while you run your races. I know for my 4M race this coming Saturday, I'm going to try to stay more ahead. I do use the virtual partner, and set it for 6.2 miles, and to complete in 53:00 minutes, and it told me I lost by 8 seconds. Now that is accurate. but because of the zig zagging, I was not finished yet, LOL I think what I might do, is set the virtual partner to run 4.2, in 33:00 minutes, and see how that goes. Thoughts, suggestions???? TIA

Time: 55:38
Avg Pace: 8:48
Avg HR: 165 Cardiac Drift: 191 (my new MAX, no way was this a spike and the HR numbers were very right on during this race:)