Nurse on the Run

Sooo, I’m pretty sure I’ve been leaving you all hanging…it’s been a busy week!  However, on Sunday I was able to participate in a new first…my first trail race!  Quite odd that my first trail race took place in NYC, but the Urban Environmental Challenge put on by the Van Cortland Track Club is the only trail race in NYC, and it happens to be Betsy’s favorite race, so she convinced me to sign up for it even though it was only a week post-marathon. 

The race was up in the Bronx, so I met Betsy and Megan bright and early for a trip up to Van Cortland Park.  After taking the bus and the subway, we reached our destination.  The race was quite small with only 327 racers, which is apparently much bigger than in previous years.  We got up to the park and picked up our bib numbers and t-shirts.  Bag check was pretty much just a pile that everyone threw their backpacks into…small race!

Race crew!

Soon enough they were telling people to head over to the starting line, and since it was pretty nice out (hurry up, spring!), I ran in shorts, a tshirt, and a long sleeve shirt, although after about thirty seconds of running I wanted to ditch my long sleeve.  Anyway, we gathered by the starting area and listened to the final instructions.  Megan had run off to the bathroom so I couldn’t find her for awhile, but she showed up and we lined up near the front of the pack.  Since it was a trail race, it was going to be single-file pretty quick, so we wanted to be near the front.

Race was back in the woods!

Once the gun went off, we headed off at a quick pace along a gravel trail for maybe a quarter mile before we broke into the woods, where it was single file.  The trail started with an immediate uphill and leaves were everywhere.  I’m forever unsure of my footing even on pavement (I’m not the most coordinated person ever), so I realized quite quickly that this race would take a lot of thought!  There was a lot of hopping over tree roots and wondering if the leaves under my feet had sure footing underneath them.  I pretty much just paid attention to the ground right in front of me, as all you could really do was follow the person in front of you…no one was really doing much passing since there was nowhere to go!  Every once in awhile the trail opened up and people could pass, but otherwise the pacing was pretty similar as needed.

Not going to lie…this was hard!  Not even a mile into the race and I was thinking, “Eight minute miles never felt so tough!”  I knew it wouldn’t be a fast race, but I felt like I was working and I wasn’t going anywhere fast.  I wore my garmin but didn’t really pay attention to it…it doesn’t really matter when you’re going up, down, and around.  It had rained a few days before (like…a lot), but there was only one spot in the trail that was all that muddy.  The trickiest part of the race were the fallen tree trunks we had to hop over!  Although my high school track coach used to make us do hurdle drills (I ran the mile and two mile, not sure why I was doing them…), and that was always a hilarious event (see above comment about my lack of coordination).  Needless to say, I’m sure the people behind me were either:  A) amused or B) annoyed that I was slowing them down.  Sorry!

The race itself was two (different) loops through the woods, and VCTC members were stationed throughout to read off times…I have no idea what the times corresponded to (miles?), but they would tell me what place woman I was so that was cool. 

Anyway, along we went, over leaves, up and down hills, around trails…I was getting tired!  A few of the hills were a bit steep so I did a little walk up them.  (In addition to not being coordinated, growing up in the Prairie State of Illinois never helped my ability to run hills.)  Definitely not a race to zone out in, as much concentration was required to figure out the footing and such.  However, the race ended with (maybe?) half a mile on a flat gravel trail so you could kick it into the end.  Being a small race, there wasn’t really much of a “race” to the finish, but people cheered so yay for that.

Official results:
6.2 miles in 51:25, avg pace of 8:18

Not too shabby for a trail race, I suppose!  The best part about this race was that Lloyd’s Carrot Cake Shop is right across the street and donates the awards…of carrot cake!  The winners got full carrot cakes and age group winners got carrot cake muffins.

Megan won the women’s overall, and I got fourth woman overall and third in my age group!  Another victory for this duo.

Accepting my award!

Eating our winnings!

We hung out for a little bit in Van Cortland Park and then made our way back to Manhattan with a little stop in Burger King to grab some forks to help Megan eat her winnings.  I don’t usually like carrot cake all that much, but who can argue with cream cheese frosting?

Blurry eating of cheesecake on the 1.

Overall, a successful Sunday morning.  If you live in NYC, I definitely recommend trying this race!  I’ve never run in Van Cortland Park before, but it was fun to try a trail race and eat some carrot cake.