Pride Run

This past weekend we went to NYC to visit with some friends, hit some museums, and go out to a super fancy dinner. I also had the chance to run the Front Runners New York Lesbian and Gay Pride Run on Saturday - a 5 mile jaunt through Central Park. The New York Road Runners put on about 50 races per year (including the NY Marathon) so this was just another routine race for many. I was still amazed at how smoothly and well-organized everything was - there were over 3,600 runners. The best part of the race was getting to see my friend Richard, whom I haven't seen in about 9 years or so. We were running pals back in Philadelphia, when I first started "really" running and would run together with a group almost daily on the streets and trails of Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. Hours of great conversation passed back in those days and I never thought I would find another group so enjoyable to run with until I found the Trail Monsters here in Maine. Richard and I met up before the race and had a few minutes to catch up while we did a little warm up run, then it was off to the corrals. They have organized, seeded corrals for little 5 mile races! I was pretty much just doing this as a "fun run", I didn't feel like I was really trained to do fast, short, run. The morning was getting warmer and warmer and there wasn't going to be much shade along the course. As an experienced NY road racer, Richard gave me a quick verbal overview of the course. He mentioned a few hills and started telling me about one that lasted about 2-3 (I waited for it) minutes. Whew. Thought he was going to say 2-3 miles. After last weekend's Mt. Washington race, hearing about a 2-3 minute hill made me giggle. We were in separate corrals as Richard is super speedy, so we wished each other good luck and headed to the start. After what seemed like a lot of speeches and instructions and the National Anthem, we were off. It was pretty crowded most of the race and I just kept telling myself it was only 5 miles since I was kind of nervous about racing in the first place (I always am) and especially over a short distance. I found a relatively comfortable pace and clicked through the miles. It was a blast running in Central Park, which is beautiful, even though I wasn't really taking in everything around me. Finally, the home stretch! I tried to kick it up, but didn't really feel like I had much left. I was glad to be done. Once over the finish line, we were herded through like any race, but at the end, they were handing out bags of pretzels, water, and...giant popsicles - which was an awesome idea given that it was so hot out, but a definite wink to Dr. Freud. Hello! What says Gay Pride race like huge popsicles everyone was walking around sucking after the race. Genius. Though I would have liked to have gone a little faster (who doesn't say that after any race?), it was still fun and I'm glad I did it. Afterward Richard and I met up with one of my closest friends from college and his partner for a yummy brunch downtown and we all got to sit outside, relax, eat good food, and catch up. A great trip!