Nurse on the Run

What’s that?  A race recap?  What?  Well, if you’re looking for a race recap of the 40th Anniversary of the Mini 10K that happened this morning, you’ve come to the wrong place.  Because I certainly didn’t race this race. 

But you know what I did do?  I ran it.  If you’ve been around this blog for any of my races, I don’t really just like run races.  I like to race races.  I like to go fast.  If I’m going to run a race, it’s not going to be for 9+1 or because I like getting up early on a Saturday.  (Because I don’t…I work night shift, okay?)  But if you want to sign up for a race these days, you have to sign up months in advance.  I ran the Mini last year, and it’s a great race…so much history for women in running (my uterus is still inside me, trust me), and a fun race overall.  So when I saw registration open for this year, I knew I had to sign up even though I was still injured and couldn’t even make it to the end of my block without ridiculous pain in my back.

So I signed up for it.  Two weeks ago, I had no idea that I would be running this race.  I couldn’t run at all.  But when I successfully ran on Monday, I’d be lying if I said that the idea of running the Mini didn’t cross my mind.  I tried running again on Thursday with success.  I knew that running in the park in a race would be a big deal and a far cry from my controlled environment on the East River.  Uphills, downhills, people to move around…all huge question marks for my back to face.   But I wanted to try.

Call it too much too early, call it me lacking patience.  But I headed to the park to run.  I moved myself back a corral, which was hard for me to do since this is the only race I get a blue bib!  When the gun sounded, I knew to hold myself back.  8:30 miles are nice, right?  Chug along, monitor the back, just run.

It was fun to be around people again.  Running up Central Park West.  Entering the park at 90th and heading up the west side hills.  In case you were wondering, Harlem Hill hurts no matter how slow you take it, and it took all I had to not power up the hill to get it over with.  Roll back down the east side (7:46 mile, oops?  Hold back, Susan…).  Around the lower loop of the park and back up the the west side to Tavern on the Green.

People yelled, “One mile to go!”  I saw the signs for “800 meters to go.”  My legs just took over a bit and moved.  I knew I wanted to run 8:30’s, keep it really easy.  But I guess that instinct is still there to run.  Because when I race, I like to give it all I’ve got.

I crossed the line right at 51:00.  That’s an 8:13 pace.  At the risk of sounding snobby, I’d probably hang my head in shame if I really ran a race at that pace.  I should be around 1:30 faster than that per mile.  But that’s not where I am now, and the fact that this was my first pain free run in the park in nearly four months is amazing.  Absolutely no pain in my back at all.

When people tell me that they love to run the 10k, I laugh and tell them, “If you like the 10k, then you’re not running fast enough.”  Because 10ks hurt if you run them right.  You should only like them when they’re over.  But today wasn’t a race for me, it was a reminder that I’ll be back out there pushing the pace soon enough.  I’ve been patient for the past four months (minus a few breakdowns where I hated every runner I saw), and I’ll be patient coming back.  Because any running is greater than no running.

Oh, and that popsicle at the end of the race?  Nice touch, NYRR, a popsicle never tasted so good.  And my running shoes have never made me smile so much. 

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And because I never make travel announcements ever, I’ll be signing off for a few days as I am currently in Vermont for an escape from the big city.  First stop?  Harpoon Brewery in Vermont.

Gatsby loves the unfiltered beer.

Doesn’t get better than that.