Coney Island, Brooklyn
30 June 2012
1:03:26 finish
This was my first time to run the Take Your Base 5 Miler, which is organized by the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team to benefit the American Cancer Society. It was also my first race post-injury and it was a STRUGGLE. I was diagnosed with posterior tibial tendonosis in April and did not run for about seven weeks. I was only cleared to return to running (with walking mixed in) about three weeks before the race and I was not at all acclimated to the heat.
Race day fell in the middle of a heat wave. It was 85 degrees and humid at the start line. The course took runners from the Brooklyn Cyclones stadium on Surf Avenue to the boardwalk, where we ran all the way to the west end, turned and ran all the way to the east end, turned again and ran back to the stadium. NO SHADE. My only complaint related to the race was the lack of water stations. There were two (one at each end) and I think under the conditions at least one more in the middle would have been better.
The course passed by the New York Aquarium, which has vending machines right on the boardwalk. I actually stopped and bought a bottle of PowerAde while seriously considering whether I should DNF. About that time I saw a runner from my online forum pass by and decided to catch up to him and say hi. We chatted and ran together the remaining two miles of the race. I really think I would have quit if I hadn’t seen him. I was overheated, my heart rate was super high, my foot was starting to bother me, I hadn’t slept well the night before, I just wasn’t having a good day.
Finished with my slowest 5-mile race time to date, but I finished and that felt like a really big accomplishment under the circumstances.
This was my first race as a member of the Prospect Park Track Club. I joined right before I got injured.
The starting line was in front of the stadium; the finish line was behind homeplate.
Nothing better than walking on the beach after finishing a race!