Twice Frozen Penguin

By | March 11, 2018

which sounds like I’m a crazy carnivore!

NYCRuns’ Frozen Penguin holds a special place in my heart as my first 5K. So as soon as it was announced, I signed up for today. I realized I’ve only raced four 5Ks and while I’ll probably also repeat one of the other ones (and maybe the other in April), I don’t love the distance for a race. I wasn’t sure this was going to be as fun as last year since it didn’t have the “first” element, but NYCRuns put on a good event and it was a fun crowd of people bouncing around to keep warm. And as much as I love Central Park, sometimes it’s nice to run elsewhere.

Luckily somewhat warmer this year

While still penguin friendly, the temps were luckily a bit warmer this year and I learned you really don’t need to be there an hour early. 25m was still plenty despite this run not having advance bib/shirt pickup.

animatronic penguin

I don’t love the shirt, so I’m not sad they didn’t have the women’s size I wanted. I do like that it’s long sleeved so I can wear it today. Given that I didn’t want to carry it for three miles, I committed the “sin” of wearing it before I earned it. It made for a nice layer as the park was mighty chilly. I’m really glad I grabbed a jacket last minute.

 

Yep, same jacket I bought for last year

No official photos this year that I’ve found. So just me being requisite silly. Differences between the two photos mostly “lessons learned” in a year of races:

  • a muff is way more practical than an infinity scarf
  • the race giveaway you think you hate is great for runs where you plan to ditch the hat. Except it’s too cold and you keep it on.
  • Belt > clutch to hold on to things
  • I kind of missed my wind pants, my butt was cold while we were waiting. I also missed their pockets, but those hips last year not at all flattering.
    • I don’t look like I lost the weight I have, thank you layers. LOL. Two shirts under that coat and I never did warm up enough to want to take one off.
  • Same flip top mittens. Insane that I didn’t need them in December or January runs but I did in March.

2017 vs. 2018 Penguin

Finished 12 spots closer to the front, but ten and a half minutes faster! And I was much closer to the pack. I ran 99.9% of it, with the walk only in the second water station so I didn’t freeze my chin with ice cold water on a cold day. I didn’t really have a time goal for this one, although I had a few thought starters. I’m happy with the race I ran today though, it was the best possible for me on this day. I’m hoping to get back to Mile High Run Club this week for some speed work, which I know made the difference in recent gains.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how close my watch was to the course markers. I ran 3.13 by the watch, and was in sync until mile 3. Not sure what that was about. Reason I’m using NYCRuns’ timing & distance here vs. usual RunKeeper is last year I didn’t have my watch yet and phone died on course so only had NYCRuns’, so apples to apples ish

Splendiferous splits!

 

Except when it comes to TomTom splits since NYCRuns’ doesn’t have those. Only timing pad is start/finish. Miles one and three had significant uphills, and the start was crowded/trail segment narrow there so I’m not surprised by any of the splits. Mile two was flat/downhill to the river. Pleased with running the big hills, they’re both steeper than Cat Hill or anything else I do regularly. My knee felt a little weird, so I’ll keep an eye on that. I think it’s fine though, just cold muscle and COLD day.

And then I did something I’ve never done before, I ran after the race. No hot chocolate this year so I got more water and then headed south to the m86 bus. In part because there is no easy/direct way home, but also in part because my legs felt good and I wanted to get a few more miles in. I’m still not sure I’ll ever be that person who does a pile of mileage on top of a race, but this felt good.

As did the hot bath when I got home.

Other Notes:

  • Other runs this week, all at 5.5 speed, .5 incline:
      • 2.29 miles on Monday. I was mentally gassed. That (25m) is the minimum I’m allowed. So I did it and then bailed
      • 2.75 miles Tuesday. Feeling less gassed.
      • 3.21 miles Friday for a dear friend’s 32nd birthday. This felt really, really good. The two days off mid week is a good cycle. Of course I can’t do it this week.
  • Race calendar filled out for spring/summer:
    • March
      • March 17 – haven’t signed up for this but weather-depending I may do NYCRuns’ Spring Fling as a long run for Cherry Blossom as they allow combining of 5 and 10Ks.
      • March 18 – cheering at Team MHRC cheering station and then doing my +1 volunteer slot at the medal engraving station. Indoors in March, yes please.  Yes, I think I might really be going for 9+1 for 2019 😮
    • April:
      • April 8: Cherry Blossom 10 Miler
      • April 15 (maybe): Damon Runyon 5K at Yankee Stadium depending on how my legs feel after Cherry Blossom
    • May:
      • May 19: Brooklyn Half
    • June: oh, busy bee!
      • June 3: Italy Run 5M
      • June 9: New York Mini 10K
      • June 16: Queens 10K (“free”, thanks New Balance Rewards)
      • June 23: Front Runners New York LGBT Pride Run 5M
      • June 24: Achilles Hope & Possibility 4M. (I love the work of Achilles. If my legs aren’t up for this after the one prior I’ll walk it. Can’t not support it).
    • July:
      • July 28: NYRR Team Championships 5M
    • August:
      • August 5: Manhattan 7 Miler
July will probably pick up a couple more, just depends on vacation. But if these all stick, I’ll have my 9 in. EEK!

 

6 thoughts on “Twice Frozen Penguin

  1. Liz Dexter

    Brilliant work – what an amazing PB! And all those races – yay! I see you’ll be doing your 10 miler on my next marathon day so I’ll send you strength and power from my race to yours and we might be running at the same time!

    Reply
    1. cari Post author

      Yes! I think we step off at 8a, which is either 12 noon or 1p for you. We just changed the clocks forward Saturday night. We’re going to kick ass

      Reply
      1. Liz Dexter

        It will be 1pm because our clocks are changing the weekend after next. I will still be running so we’ll be running TOGETHER (aww).

        Reply
  2. Pingback: Walking through MLB history and listening to my body, week of 7.23 – travellingcari.com

  3. Pingback: Tuesday Topics: #NewportFiesta5K |

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *