NYC, Lung Cancer Connection 5K Race Recap

Geoffrey Mutai - NYC Marathon Champ, Meb PR's, Americans from NYC talk, Sara Hall wins, Lauren Fleshman, Shalane to Rock and Roll in San Antonio, and James Kwambai wins in Seoul.

What an amazing NYC Marathon this year! Women's race was pretty crazy with Mary Keitany going for broke, but ultimately fading at the end. The men's race was not too surprising, but showed that Mutai's performance in Boston was legit. NYC's course is a beast, and he took it to a level that was not ever dreamt of. Very strange that NYC's course record is now faster than the much flatter Chicago's, but I foresee that changing in the next few years as the assault towards a sub 2 hour marathon seems a lot more feasible now more than ever. Geoffrey Mutai has established himself as the man to beat (assuming Kenya picks him for their Olympic team), and will be a force to be reckoned with for many more marathons to come.

Friday, November 5th - ~3 miles. Ran after work - was stuck in traffic forever due to a major accident on I-270, but was anxious to shake out the legs a little since I hadn't felt all that great lately. Definitely did the trick and felt pretty relaxed afterwards. Ran for 20 or so minutes easy.

Saturday, November 6th - 7 miles (1 up, LUNG CANCER CONNECTION 5K (1st place!), 1 down, 2 miles). Saw this race via a flier hung up at work, so decided to run since one of my colleagues has lung cancer and it was definitely for a great cause. Crazy morning, and crazy race. Woke up early and drove to Creve Couer Park to get my race number and warm up. Only there wasn't anyone there except for a clueless volunteer who had no idea where anything was, what direction we were running, and most likely he wouldn't have known his own name had I asked. Right before I was about to start warming up, he comes running towards me and tells me the race is on the other side of the park. Crap. So I hightail it to the location, where there were several hundred people already there engaging in the festivities. Make it in time to get my race shirt and number, run back to my car to change (parked a good half mile away since I had gotten there late), ran back and met up with some friends for a few minutes. The race was not organized very well, so when I saw the cluster of runners walking towards the start (not marked), I ran over really quick to line up front. Asked the starter where our turn around was - he said just follow the signs, then immediately started the race. Thanks buddy. One other guy came shooting from the blocks, and was seriously sprinting like it was nobody's business. I thought he was gone, but a half mile out I was already reeling him in (he was turning around every 10 seconds to check on me, so figured he was already tiring), so just waited and tried to settle into pace without losing him. At the halfway point, he blazed through the turn around cone, and I shouted for him to turn around (should have just let him go lol), and me being a good sportsman, waited for him to catch up and ran with him for awhile. Felt ok at this point, then started to strategize where I would lay the hammer down. At the 2nd mile marker, picked it up and never looked back. Definitely gapped a bit, then was settling in for victory when suddenly I noticed the upcoming trail had about 20 ft. of water that was a good 6 inches deep coming up. So I was going to wrong way, and didn't know what to do! Ran through the water, ran into some muddy field and came to a stop trying to figure out where the hell I was. Saw the parking lot, so started running through there, then saw the trail a bit ahead and started running for that. Seriously stared to panic, because I thought I was going to lose because of the idiot race director who didn't mark the turns correctly. Eventually made it back despite my long detour around the course, and crossed the finish line amazingly still in first place. Had a "nice chat" with the race director about not marking the course (seriously????), went to cool down and change, then went to hang out with friends and coworkers afterwards. Cool for my coworkers to see me win, and poignant to win for Chuck (see picture above) who is my coworker/friend that is battling lung cancer. Definitely the strangest win I have ever had, but a win nonetheless. Got home, ran 20 minutes more, but stopped because my right foot was killing me (probably from running through the "adventure course" trying to get back onto the actual course, which was uneven as it gets). 5K official time is unknown, but definitely wrong since I ran a good extra quarter mile, but I am going by my Garmin splits which were pretty accurate on the course (hit all the mile markers dead on) - 18:44 (5:50, 6:10, 6:08). Lots of R&R on Saturday, but had a mini celebration at night with dinner at a nice restaurant in Central West End called Salt, then a few cocktails at various places in the area.

Sunday, November 7th - 10 miles. Glad for the extra hour of sleep with the time change, and wasn't feeling too hot from the night before. Crystal dragged me out nice and early for our scheduled long run. Not the best weather - windy, overcast, and cool, but warmed up during the run. I overdressed, so was a bit uncomfortable later in the run. Felt like garbage and my foot was still hurting, but eventually snapped out of it and my foot felt better on the second half. Out and back on Old Faithful, but hit a pretty nasty headwind by Casey's which made Crystal and I laugh at how ridiculous it was outside. Pretty exhausted by the time we finished, but we kept it nice and slow thankfully. Ran into Pat on the way in - so squeezed in a mile or so before finishing. Ran for 1:27:27, laid on the couch the rest of the day, then did a good 20-30 minutes of stretching and corework at night which has caused some unwelcome soreness all over my body today. NYC Marathon afterwards - awesome race, and so happy to watch. Really want to run there again someday. Big congrats to my buddy Gabe who ran 3:02!!!

40 miles this week, I'll take it.

So trying to make a concerted effort to work on flexibility and corework for this block, and nutrition and rest as well. Happy about the race for the most part, but still don't have very good strength which is something to work on. Nothing crazy this week, but did sign up for the Girls on the Run 5K in Forest Park this Saturday, which will make for a good speed work session.