Lots of Running News


Rob, Amy & Andrew Before The 5K
Originally uploaded by aweber9

It's been a big running weekend.

Yesterday's run was a long training run. I went out to Central Park and did 10.4 miles in 91.3 minutes, which works out to just under 8.8 minutes per mile. While it was cloudy and raining when I started, it turned into a beautiful sunny day by the time I finished.

This morning brought the Coogan's Salsa, Blues, & Shamrocks 5K (3.1 miles) up near 168th Street and Broadway. It was a beautiful day though fairly cold (30 degrees) and quite windy (gusts to 21 mph). I went up to the race with Rob Usdan and Amy Yenkin, two good friends of ours; that's Rob and Amy in the picture above. Amy has been one of my inspirations to go for the marathon and has been super-generous with advice and tips.

The results were recently posted and I am quite pleased with how I did, particularly since I was coming off a long run yesterday. My official time was 24:27, which equates to a 7:53 mile. Even more significant is the fact that I finished in the top 25% of all finishers, by far the best I've done in any of my races so far. Rob and Amy and I all finished within a minute of each other.

Today's race was the fourth of nine which are required for guaranteed entry into the 2009 New York City Marathon; there's also a new requirement this year that you have to volunteer to help out with one NYRR race in addition to finishing nine races. Finishing the half-marathon Grand Prix will give me seven total, so I still need to find two more races to run.

The best news of all is that my legs and knees feel great even as I'm ramping up my training program and improving my results. Thanks very much to everyone who has been interested and supportive.

If you are interested in more pictures from Coogan's, check them out at this link on flickr.

Comments

Chatham Gardens said…
Congratulations on your incredible (though not surprising) results. So you are already planning on the 09 NY Marathon?

Well, if you run, I'll travel to NY and be at the finish line to greet you (or at least on the nearest bench). And knowing you never commit to things casually, I could make my hotel reservation now!
You're doing so great! Congrats. I'm proud of you.

Popular posts from this blog

Mystery Solved

A '59 Seconds' Exercise in Motivation and a 2010 Resolution