Mud, ice, rain and fog - NYRR opens the season

Nope, it is not your weather forecast, it is my report of NYRR's Central Park season opener - Joe Kleinerman 10K.

I don't know if you noticed, but we had a bit of a cold spell over here in North America. No biggie, just a few degrees below freezing and then some. Even generally mild-weathered NYC had its share of ice, snow and general frostiness. And all of a sudden it shot up. Today's high is expected to be well above freezing. "Polar vortex" might be gone, but it left us some lovely parting gifts and today's race was all about those gifts.

About 6000 runners started the race, which in my opinion is quite the turnout for the first race of the season. Mud was contained in the bag check area, so we didn't have to worry about it too much once we got running. Ice, on the other hand, was covering the Harlem Hill. I tried to run on the median, thinking all those people ahead would melt it a bit. No luck. It was still pretty slippery. In order to avoid a Wile E. Coyote-like situation, I slowed down to a 12 min/mile pace like everyone around and possibly sacrificed a minute or so. On the upside, I believe this is the first time I climbed the Harlem Hill without risk of a heart attack.

Once we got through the North side of the Park, down to the West, we found ourselves in thick fog. And you know what that means! Humidity! So, even though the temperature was an almost perfect 50, 93% humidity killed our joy. Some rain would have been nice, but it decided to wait until the finish, so that we get soaked while getting back home instead of on the course.

I was shooting for a sub 1:00 finish, about 4 minutes slower than my 10K PB in the Park. I thought this would be achievable at my current state of fitness. Alas, I finished at 01:01:01 (yeah!). Aside from its binary beauty, my time obviously is nothing to be too excited about. But patience! This is only the first step in getting some speed into my legs. So as the season rolls along I should be able to report faster mile splits.

One final note. If you haven't already, take a look at this running motivation community organized by the hosts of the podcast Marathon Talk: Jantastic.