Governor's Island 10k - Race Recap

Sunday started off like most Sundays during summer marathon training; alarm goes off at 5:30am, you curse at the alarm, at yourself for making these plans, wonder the age old question of "Whhhhyyy?" And then you get up, get dressed, make breakfast and head out to the race. 

I am pretty anal about checking the MTA Weekender site, especially when I knew there were only two ferries to catch to get the race on time. I had planned to take the 4/5 to Bowling Green, but when I got to Atlantic Ave, the platform for the 4/5 was roped off....lovely. A woman saw my race bib and frantically asked me how we could get to the race. An MTA worker overheard us talking and told us to catch to 2/3 to Wall St and walk. Ok, fine!

Made it to the 7:00 ferry, ran into Jonathan and some others from Paragon, had coffee and chilled out. This whole time I noticed how it seemed to be quite hot and humid, and the race was still an hour away...

But there were baby goats!

Like I mentioned previously, I had no goals for this race except to finish in under an hour. Even with the heat I knew this shouldn't be an issue. I thought about my PR, knowing it was a 9:00 pace and didn't think I'd even be close to it. 

The starting horn blared and we were off! I didn't have much of a plan for this race. For those of you who don't know, the course is 2 mile loop which you complete 3 times. I didn't want to go out too fast, so I wanted to take it easyish on the first loop and see how everything felt. 

About half a mile into this race I realized it was going to be brutally hot, and I kicked myself for not taking my own hydration with me. (There was only one water station that you passed at the end of each loop)

The sun was beating down on me heavily, and I also kicked myself for not wearing sunscreen. What can I say? I was very unprepared. 

I got to the first mile marker and the clock said 8:33....I looked at my watch and it had the distance at about .87. Hm. My Garmin's first mile was 9:13. We approach the second mile again a bit before my Garmin. 

At this point I was actually really excited about my pace. I've never run a race where my Garmin was "short." Usually it's long which can make pacing tough. In this case I was actually running faster than my Garmin said. 

Finishing loop 1 I was desperate for water, and approaching the water station I had to come to a complete stop. There were two people filling up water cups for 1,000 people. What?? It must have taken me at least 10 seconds of standing there before I was able to get a cup of water. Drank half of it, poured half of it on my head, and continued on. 

Post race, looking...less than thrilled

Though I was already suffering from the sun/heat I wanted to try and keep my pace up knowing that I could be close to my PR. By the end of loop 2 I was miserable. The water situation was still the same. I continued on to lap 3.

I kept reminding myself there were only two miles left, but I had definitely slowed down. My legs felt relatively fine, but I felt exhausted, depleted, and you guessed it, hot. I finally took a walk break around mile 5 going up a hill (again, my Garmin said it was only 4.xx) Doing the math at the point, I knew I was still close, and tried to keep my legs moving. Every time we ran in a sunny spot with no breeze I felt like every last bit of energy was being zapped from me. 

We rounded the 6 mile marker, and I blew past the water station. Getting closer to the finish line I saw the clock said 56:30. I used every last bit of energy I had to kick, and crossed the (shaded!) finish line in 57:00. Needless to say I was thrilled, but then I realized, did I just miss a PR by a few seconds?? After checking I realized I missed it by 24 seconds. It was apparent the two walk breaks and the water station fiasco had cost me.

My legs felt fairly good throughout the rest of the day, a little sore, but nothing too serious. Overall, I'd say that the day was a win.