Scotland Run
I made up for my lack of significant workout on Saturday by running to the start of the Scotland Run in Central Park from my house near Prospect Park. This was the first time I ventured into the city from my home for a run. It wasn’t bad at all; quite enjoyable in fact.
My route took my down Union Street, over the Gowanus Canal and then a right on Smith Street to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was beautiful on the bridge with clear skies a mild breeze and sweeping views. Not one to waste an opportunity I grabbed a picture with my camera phone.
After the bridge, I ran past the court houses, City Hall, up Lafayette Street to 4th Avenue through Union Square. From there, I ran straight up Broadway. It might seem crazy to run along Broadway, but at the early Sunday hour, very few cars were on the road. I practically had the street to myself. I continued north through Herald Square and Times Square. As I continued forward, I was running almost entirely in shade, being blocked from the sunlight by the canyon formed by the buildings on each side. When I emerged into Columbus Circle, it was if the sky suddenly opened up and I was presented with the sun brilliant open space of the circle and Central Park ahead of me.
As much as Broadway seemed empty, Central Park was packed. Multiple events were going on simultaneously. There was the Scotland run, with several festivity tents, plus the March Madness Biathlon being held on the other side of the park. I had to watch for speeding cyclists zipping past when I crossed the park drive. I arrived with about 40 minutes to spare before the race, so I went directly to the registration tent to sign up, get my number, T-Shirt and to store my junk in the baggage check.
Now fully prepared for the race, I ran another mile or two, since I didn’t quite reach ten miles that I planned to run before the start. It was a perfect plan actually, since I was able to stay warm and loose for the start. I lined up at the 7 minute mile mark with just a few minutes to spare. We were treated to a bagpipe rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
The run itself was uneventful except for the various Scottish costumes many athletes were wearing. I ran most of the race next to a couple who were wearing Scottish kilts. The woman looked particularly fetching with a plaid sash wrapped around her left shoulder and around her right waist and long auburn pigtails trailing behind her head. We alternately passed each other until the 5 mile mark, where they decided to turn it on and ran ahead of me to the finish. I declined to follow as I was already running hard and I wasn’t supposed to exceed AT during the race.
Of course as the 5 mile mark passed, I slowly started to increase my speed anyway. I was running mostly negative splits and I wanted to make sure I finished strong. For the last .2 miles I let my legs go and strove hard for the finish. I thought I would puke after I crossed and slowed down. An overwhelming sense of nausea gripped me and it took a couple of minutes and many long deep breaths for the feeling to subside.
I decided to skip my 2 mile cool down to look for my family. I soon found them standing off to the side of the road. We were supposed also meet Grandma at the finish, but after searching for her in vain, she finally returned home where she picked up a message from me to call my cell phone. Before we left for Grandma’s house we hung around the Scottish festivities and had my children’s faces painted. We then hung around for the raffle hoping to win the trip to Scotland. My wife did win a Scottish gift bag on a spin the wheel game. We walked to her apartment near York Avenue and had lunch nearby. Afterwards, we walked back to the park for a trip to the Central Park Zoo and later Dylan’s Candy Bar.
I should have asked my wife to bring a change of shoes, as the walking I did later in the day was very hard on my feet. My shoes were made for running, not walking for several hours and by the time we left the city my arches were hurting and my feet felt like a sweaty mess. My children are great walkers though. We must have walked several miles by the end of the day. Our last stop was Dylan’s Candy shop where we loaded up on all sorts of cavity causing junk. My son’s favorite was the Pop Rocks which he quickly devoured on the subway rude home. It was a great day to be outdoors and I was sad for us to be headed home, but it was time to go. For dinner, daddy did the cooking which consisted of a heaping stack of pancakes, veggie bacon and scrambled eggs.
One injury I do have to report from the race is a cracked tooth. I am not sure exactly when I did it, but possibly as I gritted down towards the finish. I skipped a lunch time workout to get it fixed.
Here are the race stats:
My route took my down Union Street, over the Gowanus Canal and then a right on Smith Street to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was beautiful on the bridge with clear skies a mild breeze and sweeping views. Not one to waste an opportunity I grabbed a picture with my camera phone.
After the bridge, I ran past the court houses, City Hall, up Lafayette Street to 4th Avenue through Union Square. From there, I ran straight up Broadway. It might seem crazy to run along Broadway, but at the early Sunday hour, very few cars were on the road. I practically had the street to myself. I continued north through Herald Square and Times Square. As I continued forward, I was running almost entirely in shade, being blocked from the sunlight by the canyon formed by the buildings on each side. When I emerged into Columbus Circle, it was if the sky suddenly opened up and I was presented with the sun brilliant open space of the circle and Central Park ahead of me.
As much as Broadway seemed empty, Central Park was packed. Multiple events were going on simultaneously. There was the Scotland run, with several festivity tents, plus the March Madness Biathlon being held on the other side of the park. I had to watch for speeding cyclists zipping past when I crossed the park drive. I arrived with about 40 minutes to spare before the race, so I went directly to the registration tent to sign up, get my number, T-Shirt and to store my junk in the baggage check.
Now fully prepared for the race, I ran another mile or two, since I didn’t quite reach ten miles that I planned to run before the start. It was a perfect plan actually, since I was able to stay warm and loose for the start. I lined up at the 7 minute mile mark with just a few minutes to spare. We were treated to a bagpipe rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
The run itself was uneventful except for the various Scottish costumes many athletes were wearing. I ran most of the race next to a couple who were wearing Scottish kilts. The woman looked particularly fetching with a plaid sash wrapped around her left shoulder and around her right waist and long auburn pigtails trailing behind her head. We alternately passed each other until the 5 mile mark, where they decided to turn it on and ran ahead of me to the finish. I declined to follow as I was already running hard and I wasn’t supposed to exceed AT during the race.
Of course as the 5 mile mark passed, I slowly started to increase my speed anyway. I was running mostly negative splits and I wanted to make sure I finished strong. For the last .2 miles I let my legs go and strove hard for the finish. I thought I would puke after I crossed and slowed down. An overwhelming sense of nausea gripped me and it took a couple of minutes and many long deep breaths for the feeling to subside.
I decided to skip my 2 mile cool down to look for my family. I soon found them standing off to the side of the road. We were supposed also meet Grandma at the finish, but after searching for her in vain, she finally returned home where she picked up a message from me to call my cell phone. Before we left for Grandma’s house we hung around the Scottish festivities and had my children’s faces painted. We then hung around for the raffle hoping to win the trip to Scotland. My wife did win a Scottish gift bag on a spin the wheel game. We walked to her apartment near York Avenue and had lunch nearby. Afterwards, we walked back to the park for a trip to the Central Park Zoo and later Dylan’s Candy Bar.
I should have asked my wife to bring a change of shoes, as the walking I did later in the day was very hard on my feet. My shoes were made for running, not walking for several hours and by the time we left the city my arches were hurting and my feet felt like a sweaty mess. My children are great walkers though. We must have walked several miles by the end of the day. Our last stop was Dylan’s Candy shop where we loaded up on all sorts of cavity causing junk. My son’s favorite was the Pop Rocks which he quickly devoured on the subway rude home. It was a great day to be outdoors and I was sad for us to be headed home, but it was time to go. For dinner, daddy did the cooking which consisted of a heaping stack of pancakes, veggie bacon and scrambled eggs.
One injury I do have to report from the race is a cracked tooth. I am not sure exactly when I did it, but possibly as I gritted down towards the finish. I skipped a lunch time workout to get it fixed.
Here are the race stats:
posted by Rebel at 9:56 AM
3 Comments:
So if you ran the same route mid morning in the summer, how many tourist would you see snapping pictures at the various landmarks along the way?
Sounds like a great race day! Nothing beats your family at the finish ....o.k., maybe a better finish time ;). TAKE the family anytime! Great job.
I thought I would puke after I crossed and slowed down. An overwhelming sense of nausea gripped me and it took a couple of minutes and many long deep breaths for the feeling to subside.
It's not a good run if you don't have dry heaves afterwards, right?
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