This post is mainly for my local peeps who are looking for a last minute half marathon to run this month. New Yorkers? New Jersey peeps? But hey, maybe some of you want to ring in the official first day of Spring at the World’s Fair grounds in Queens? =)
Queens 13.1
I’m excited to share a discount code to receive 10% off your registration for the Queens 13.1 in just 9 days! But online registration closes on March 17th so you have to act fast! Use this code for your discount: Q131SB
A bit about their race (taken from their site):
Race: 13.1 miles through beautiful Flushing Meadows Park, home of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fair and set your sights on the finish line at the historic Unisphere where you will be crowned victorious. The Michelob ULTRA Queens 13.1 will make you feel like royalty every step of your 13.1 journey!
Post race: Celebrate your finish at the post-race party located in the newly renovated Art Museum and at Market 14, a unique finish line experience complete with fun vendors, food trucks and live entertainment!
Plus: You’ll get a long sleeve tech shirt and medal.
Oh and your race photos are FREE! Who doesn’t love free photos?
I’ve never run this particular race but I have run a 10K that starts and finishes in the same location. It’s a fairly fast and flat course too. And who doesn’t want a selfie with the Unisphere behind them?
Unisphere photo-op!
And as I mentioned yesterday I’ll be representing the NJ Marathon at the post-race party so come say hello.
After a busy day Saturday I was in bed by 10:30 with the alarm set for 4:30 yesterday morning. I sprung right up though, because I was so giddy to be running a race. I know I mentioned last week but I’ve really missed running (and crossing my favorite bridge)!
VZ Bridge
I drove into Brooklyn, scooped up Lisa and Mike and then we drove into Queens, parked and walked to the start. Lots of runners took public transportation but one of the subways that we would have had to take wasn’t running which would have made the trip more than double the driving time, so we went with convenience. It was $10 to park which isn’t great but isn’t terrible either. By the time we walked from the parking lot to the start area we had about 20 minutes before the corals closed so I forced them to take pictures…
We tried to get closer but there was a globe in the way
Lisa and Mike both ran 20 miles yesterday so by the end of today’s race they literally had marathon weekends.
Even made them take a sneaker selfie…
shoe power!
The race started just a minute or so after 8am and by the time we crossed the start mats I’d say it was 8:05 or so. Not too crowded at all (there were just over 8,000 runners). I ran this course last year so I knew it was sort of boring at first. (You basically run alongside the highway for the first mile or so.) But eventually we ran past the Queens Museum, Citi Field (where the NY Mets play) and then just before the finish we ran around the iconic World’s Fair Uni-sphere, which I think is the highlight of this 10K (at least for me). There were plenty of well staffed water stops (THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS!) and a “cool down stations” otherwise known as hoses spraying a mist of water.
On a personal note, I started out running about a 10 minute pace. Not smart! Within the first mile I felt some pain in my ankle and had a little freak out. All I could think was A) OMG I have 5 more miles to go and if I just re-injured myself I’m F#cked -and- B) I am going to have the whole world say “I told you so” when I tell them I should have listened to the doctor and held off running for a bit longer.
I immediately walked when I felt the pain and after a few minutes I was good to go (thank god!) and I settled in to my 12ish minute per mile “shuffle pace”. I stopped a bunch to take pictures but I didn’t walk again for the rest of the race after that first “incident” so my overall pace was a bit faster for this weeks 10K. I’m guessing that my tendon needed to warm up a bit more at a slower pace….I had no business trying to run my normal 10k pace. Duh!
Last week I finished in 1:18:53 and this week 1:15:09. This course is MUCH FLATTER than last week’s Oakley Mini 10k
We got medals this year which was awesome. NYRR holds a 5 borough series each year with races in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. Last year they only gave medals at 2 of those races and the runners voiced their opinions all over Facebook. Needless to say, this year all 5 races will have medals. I missed Brooklyn due to my foot and I’m not going to be able to run the Bronx but I did Manhattan and Queens and I’ll be running Staten Island in October which will be a half marathon.
They distributed some food and water at the end of the race. I got this wishbone banana.
and then on our walk back to the car I noticed some heart shaped leaves
Love Leaves — arranged on the pavement so beautifully by Lisa
When I got home I took this obligatory medal shot…
But I had to crop in really tight because someone insisted on sleeping this way…
And now I will spend the next 8 days cross training and keeping up with my physical therapy appointments twice a week and hopefully come July 1st I’ll be starting that 4 week marathon training plan that I told you about yesterday.
Here are a couple of funny pics…first we have the “caught mid-wave” wave
And this is at the very start of the race (that’s lisa to my left!) when I was trying to get my music/earbuds/iPod going….so serious…
Well hope you all have a good week!
Anyone have anything fun to share about your weekend?
Oh and your race photos are FREE! Who doesn’t love free photos?
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