Race Report

Last night I tried something new, a night time, alleycat 10k.  The Gowanus Conservancy and my running club were sponsoring the "Superfund Superrun."  The race started in Greenpoint near Newtown Creek, and ended at a bar on the shores of the Gowanus Canal.  What made it an "alley cat" is that there was no set course.  The idea was to find your way from point to point by the shortest or fastest route.  There was a generally agreed upon way to go, but depending on lights and sense of direction, deviations were permitted and occurred.  Oh, and to aid in the orienteering, the race started at 10pm.  What's not to like?

I haven't raced since the catastrophic Brooklyn Half, so this seemed like a low key, amusing, way to test out the legs.  For safety sake, I clipped a flashing light to my shirt collar.  A head lamp would have been handy in a few spots, but mostly the street lighting was good enough.  Mostly, it turned out to be a confidence builder.  I started with a large group from the running club.  M__ announced an intention to run 8s, that seemed unreasonable, but aspirational.  We held 7:56 for the first mile 8:04 for the second.  They were cruising, I was huffing and puffing.  It felt good, but a quick look at my heart rate monitor showed me at my A race heart rate.  This was not an A race, so I backed it down. So did some others, so as the group thinned, I was able to keep other runners in sight (thank goodness for more flashing lights) all the way.  A couple of folks tried unorthodox routes, but I followed the suggested route which measured almost exactly 10K on the Garmin.  At the end of the day, I managed an 8:23 pace. This is nothing to write home about. I usually run 10Ks at somewhere between a 7:30 and 8 minute pace, but it was a heck of a lot faster than I've been going lately, and it felt good.

And, oh, Six Point Toasted Lager makes for excellent post race hydration. :-)

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