You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline

So week one with the new dog is over. She's come a long way. I do wish she'd sleep though the night. At least now she doesn't need to go out. She just wakes up and sorta wigs for a minute. One of us has to calm her down then she goes back to sleep. Progress.

Speaking of progress, another training week over. I did 17 miles on Friday with Rachel who was doing 21. I moved my long run so I could race the Colon cancer 15k on Sunday. My 17 miler went much better than my no sleep 20 did last week. Due to lack of sleep or really interrupted sleep all week, I really wasn't sure how my race was going to go. My training, even with lack of sleep, had been spot on. I've been hitting all of my workouts. I've PRed in every race I've run this year. So of course I wanted to PR in this one too. My PR of 1:15:18 was from back in the winter of '07 a few weeks after I had to DNF at Philly. I thought, ok, if I can hit 8 minute pace, I'll be happy with that. 

I got to the park early to watch the 4 mile race that was before the 15k and cheer on my team mates. Standing around, I got a little chilly. I had decided that morning to wear shorts and now I was having 2nd thoughts. I also left my house with out my water bottle and a banana I had set aside to have before hand. Oh well, I had a gel I could take during the race or before if need be. 

I lined up in the 2nd corral, red, a new spot for me. After Coogan's 5k, my pace moved me up a corral. I was pretty happy about that.

And we're off. First mile has cat hill, the biggest hill of the race for this course, we'll see it 2x. Up and over in 7:52. Ok, not bad. I feel pretty good. Imagine my shock when I hit mile 2 and see I went though in 7:11. No way I thought, esp as mile 3 was 8:15. I know there are some hills in mile 3 but I didn't slow down that much! The miles musta been off. As I went through the 102 transverse, there were some FRNY boys cheering, always a help. Loren was also there with Bea, watching her first running race. 

Mile 4 is some nice down hills before the 72nd st transverse. 7:36.

Mile 5 takes us around the bottom part of the park again, I decide to take my gel just because I didn't think I had enough in me. 7:45.

Now we start over. At this point, we're passing walkers who are doing the lower loop, it's a bit crowded and I have to go wide to pass people and squeeze between stinky horse carriage. Oh and I have cat hill to get up again. 

Mile 6 7:53, not bad with the hill. 

Mile 7 going my the transverse again. I see Loren, Bea, and Mikey B. 7:48

My stomach starts to feel not so good, but I know when I get to the west side of the transverse it's maybe a mile and a half. An up hill then a downhill that will launch us to the 72nd st transverse.

Mile 8 8:05. Ok, the hill. Only my 2nd mile over 8. I know I'm going to PR, I just wish I felt a little bit better. Coming down the down hill I pick it up. I feel someone running next to me. I look over to see Cenk matching my steps, I say hi and he says hi back and just goes.

Mile 9 7:56. Slower than I wanted. Come on .3 to go. Hang in there tummy. 

I'm getting close to the transverse and there's Hilary cheering. I turn the corner and hear the FRNY girls but dont really make out who's there. 

Just

up

this

little

rise.

I look at my watch and it says 1:12:xx. I wanna break 1:13 so I push to the finish. 

1:12:44, PR by 2.5 minutes. I am totally thrilled. Cenk is right ahead of me and I stop to give him a hug. Great race! Perfect weather! My stomach hates me! 15th in my age group and 96th woman. In NYC, that's pretty damn good.

Enough about me. I want to talk about my team for a minute and what they did in the 4 miler.

Our men's team was 2nd team over all. Leading the charge was Steve Vizena in a time of 23:10. Amazing time. Even more amazing (this is for you number geeks... you know who you are) is Steve is 53. He was 8th over all, won his age group, ran a 5:47 pace with an AG of 85.2%, highest in the entire race. This is the 2nd week in a row he's had the highest AG% in a race. He was followed by Chris Stoia, Kevin Masse, Joshua Marland and Barry Abrams.

Now our men's team has a lot of fast guys. They often take home some hardware. Our woman's team is an amazing work in progress. Truely amazing. I am so proud of these ladies. It wasn't long ago we couldn't even field a team and now...well now...

Our women took first place. 

Lead by Megan Jenkins, just missing her sub 7 pace but winning her age group. Hilary was next, just missing a PR due to a shoe lace malfunction and taking 5th in her ag. Rounding out the team Bernie Janelle, Katrina Amaro, and Dr. Mickey. Good job ladies!