On Sunday the 27th, I was fairly ready for my morning when the alarm went off at 5:21am (so I can snooze until 5:30). I had signed up for this race back in June and it’s my 4th of the NYRR Borough series (ran the NYC Half, Brooklyn Half, and Queens 10K earlier this year). This race was my first ten-mile race ever and my first race in the Bronx. I had originally wanted to keep at 9:35 pace throughout, but as my heels started giving me trouble in mid August and continued throughout September, I slowed my goal down to 9:45/mile and then to anything under 10/mile. I want to stay healthy for the Nike Women’s Half in SF October 18th, so I decided to treat this as a training run more than anything.

And that’s what happened. Before the 8am gun, I sipped some Gatorade (only available up near the start because of the Bronx 5K that was occurring) and stopped to talk to a speedier teammate on my way back to my corral. By the time I was done drinking and about to line up, the corrals were all moving up closer to the start. I slipped in somewhere near my “I’ letter but ran into teammates who were in G and H, then a friend who was in J found me. She and I went over our goals for the race (1. finish 2. steadyish pace 3. feel “ready” for our upcoming half marathons) and agreed to at least start together.

We carried on a conversational pace hovering around 10 minutes for the first 5 miles, clocking in a 9:45 third mile, then a slower 4th mile when we slowed for some water. We got to see the winners and sub-elites after the turnaround when we were done with 3 miles and they were done with 7, which was amazing. We applauded for a lot of them and Jaime was able to let out a fair amount of wooos for the women. I then got to see some fast PPTC teammates and cheer for them (and vice versa), which was a huge boost. I was smiling a lot through the 10K mark and enjoying the upbeat tunes around the park turnaround. Our legs were definitely feeling heavier right around the 5 mile mark, so I popped 2 pink lemonade Honey Stinger chews and washed them down with some Gatorade. The mild downhills gave us a lot to look forward to. Our chitchat grew more intermittent and we tried to count down the hills remaining. I took 2 more Honey Stingers at Mile 7 with some water.

Finally, with only 1.5 miles to go, I was feeling ready to “finish strong”. I picked up the pace to a 9:30 then sped up the last mile to a 9:00, and a sprint finish. The finish line really snuck up on me after a small uphill/downhill. I was hoping for some finish line photos, but MarathonFoto only has the cheesy ones I took with Jaime, including where the photog told us to bite our medals. Better than sorority arm, I guess?

I can’t wait to wear the shirt for this race because it is neon green and will hopefully help with visibility at night. I’m so glad I got to do this race for my 4/6 (guaranteed entry to the 2016 NYC Half!), see some more of the Bronx than my usual work-related Fordham Rd. jaunts, and feel more race-ready for SF.