Every year, my company sponsored the Wall Street Run, a 3 mile race through the streets of the Financial District in Manhattan. There is a running portion and a walking portion, and the groups are split up with separate starts. I always had free entry to this race through my job and access to the after parties where the margaritas were a-flowing!

Then another company bought my company, and that new company doesn’t care about helping heart disease. Or something. My point is, my company no longer sponsors this race, so this year I had to pay for my entry — which is good, since part of my entry went to the American Heart Association. My grandpa had two heart attacks and double bypass surgery, so this is an important cause to me.

I have to admit, it was very strange not having lots of people in my office all getting ready and going down to the start together in our matching shirts. In fact, the two people left in the office when I was getting ready asked me how I knew about the race! Without our company to sponsor it and promote it on the intranet, no one there even knew the race was happening. How sad. How different things used to be.

I really like that this race starts and ends right outside my office building at 6:45 pm. Convenience is key. I changed at work and went downstairs to meet my friends Missy and Melissa before the race. It was Missy’s first race, so I was excited for her! So excited that I insisted on attaching her D-Tag timing chip on her shoe while she stood helpless.

The night before the race, at 10 pm (bedtime) I realized that I forgot to create a race playlist! I abandoned any hopes of getting to sleep early and worked on a fun, fast 3 mile playlist.

My playlist was so awesome and I love myself for selecting these songs. It was the official race of the mashup.

I am still not ready to give up on Say Hey (I Love You).

Even though it was 93 degrees out with 60% humidity and many people were concerned, I was excited. When people are comfortable, I am cold. When people are cold, I am shivering in pain. When people are hot and sweaty, I am comfortable.

I thrive in the heat.

This was the first year the race was held in June. It is usually in May and I have a feeling that after this year the NYRR might switch it back to May again. According to all the normal temperatured (I can make up words if they make sense) people, it was a very hot, sticky race. And I knew it was hot, I am able to recognize that. When I saw a girl in a cotton t-shirt and cotton full length leggings, my heart hurt a little for what she was about to experience.

Because I like the heat, I decided to push myself a little — but not too much. I am not stupid, and I do know to slow down or stop if I am not feeling well. I hydrated well all day, having a cold pressed green juice with a dash of sea salt right before the race. Having come straight from my office to the start, it was my first non-portapotty race and I have to say, it was nice.

I turned on my new Garmin and then someone sang the National Anthem. I was chatting to my friends and this guy turned around and yelled at me! Oops.

And then we were off! I took off and . . . could not move. There were so many people, no corrals, many non-runners. Lots of the people there were part of teams through their company. But I wanted to try and run! So I weaved. I followed other runners up on sidewalks to get around people and dashed between friends. I did make sure to take in my surroundings because I love running races on actual streets of NYC! I think it is so cool when they close the streets for runners, and I am impressed by NYRR’s ability to close off so much of the financial district during rush hour.

I’ve worked in this area for three years now, so it was also fun running through familiar territory. Now, when I walk along these sidewalks, I can think “I ran on this street!” As I ran down Church street, some kids who were around 14 were holding their hands out for high fives. I took one, of course.

So as I said I wore my new Garmin and here is the map of where I ran for this race:

You can see a lot of my weaving here! The race was straight down streets and around corners. All the little squigglies are my dogding people an trying to maintain a decent pace. Although I have to admit the Garmin was a little off. I assure you I did not run directly over Ground Zero.

There was only one water station, on Water Street (ha), which was not nearly enough on such a hot, humid day. I didn’t even get to see it because so many people were crowded around, although there was a person with a hose again. I didn’t run directly under the water, but a couple drops got on me and it was nice.

Sometimes the crowd would clear a little and I’d have room to run, other times it would be completely packed and I would have to slow down and figure out how to get around everyone. A lot of people would just start walking right in the middle, which I completely understand and think is a great thing to do in these temps — but I wish they would have moved over to the side. Oh, well.

At the last mile, the road really cleared up. I finally had space to run! Except I was tired and didn’t have much left in me, so I was just going through the motions at that point. My big push at the beginning took a lot out of me. When we turned onto the West Side Highway, I did get some new energy back because I knew we were getting near the end, and I love this running path! I’ve walked this path many times during breaks from work.

The sun was beating down on us and the river was gorgeous. There were so many people cheering us on! I was surprised by how quickly I saw the finish line ahead — this race went by so fast! I was on my last song of the playlist, so I timed it well, but I was still shocked. I’m usually wishing for the finish line and wondering if it will ever come, but for this race (yes, it was just three miles, but still a tough race) it hit me out of nowhere. I wanted to speed up and sprint for a strong finish, but the path is pretty narrow here and there was no way to get around the masses of people. So I just kept going and then I was done!

I didn’t immediately stop in my tracks or feel like I need to collapse like I do after many other races. I felt great! I could have run more. I walked over to the water bottles, got one for myself and then secured a table outside at Southwest for me, Missy and Melissa.

Shortly after I finished, they joined me at our table overlooking the water for margaritas and quesadillas!

Our view from dinner:

I need to take advantage of this more often. My new BlackBerry takes very nice photos!

Amazing Grilled Vegetable and Goat Cheese Quesadilla (Grilled marinated vegetables, caramelized onions, roasted poblano peppers, Goat cheese and Mexican cheeses).

Oh! How did I do? According to the New York Road Runners, here are my stats for this 3 mile race:

Time: 27:15

Pace: 9:05
Age: 35

Okay, so I am not 35, I am 27.  But I am so happy with my time! Even though it felt like I was running so slowly because of all the people, I managed to run pretty fast anyway! I wonder how I could do in this distance in better racing conditions? I felt like such a real runner too, trying to get around so many people who weren’t taking the race as seriously as I am. Probably because they are not insane like I am.

My Garmin actually says I ran 3.4 miles, which makes sense with ALL my weaving. I definitely ran more than 3 miles in this 27:15.  Seriously, I went so far out of my way to get around all the people! Although the Garmin also thinks I ran over a construction site, so, you know.  I think I can compare this to my 5K races and officially call this a PR.

So happy with this race! Most other people I spoke to found the weather too hot and humid and had a less than ideal race. And although the race conditions were far from perfect, I still managed to have a great time and be happy with my time.

Have you ever ran well in a race that other people found difficult? Or found a race challenging or annoying when no one else seemed to?

Good news for you: next week’s post will NOT be a race recap. Rejoice!

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