Race #31 - New Hyde Park 8K

I am sitting on my deck, shoes off, enjoying a well deserved beer after a weekend of running. Today's race was in New Hyde Park, Long Island. It was my second race on the Island, but unfortunately none of my LI friends could join me. No worries, I think I will get out here for one or two more, so if you are reading LI friends, get running.

I ran this race instead of the Princeton 10K (5 miles from my house) on the recommendation from Eve Volonakis(NHP runners' club member) who I met at the Long Beach 10 miler. It also happens to be the town where my cousin Joe and his family resides. Just some quick background on my cuz. I grew up in Brooklyn and Joe grew up in Deer Park. His dad and my mom are brother/sister. I always looked forward to visiting with them because he had a nice size yard and we would play ball the whole weekend I was there. His dad, my Uncle, was a fabulous athlete and as a kid I marveled how this old man (Early 40's) couldh still play baseball. I remember thinking I wanted to be just like that. My cousin would gather all his friends and we would play baseball all day at the local school and come back to home made pizza. I attribute all my baseball knowledge to my visits out there.

Now back to today's race. It was rather warm for a 9:15 start and I planned on taking it easy since my legs were tired from yesterday's trail run. I checked in and met two very nice women, Tania & Leslie, who were selling raffle tickets and were very interested in my 50@50. One of the women gave me $5 towards my goal of $10,000 which was extremely nice of her. When I checked in, I was greeted by "I know you" from Eve, who remembered my shirt from the other LI race. She wasn't running today, but was helping out with the race.

I hit absolutely no traffic going out so I had 90 minutes to kill before the race so I stretched, hoping to get loose for the race. I chatted with some other friendly Long Islanders and then got to the start line. I was just hoping it was a flat course. This is my last race before Mt Washington so I just wanted to make it without pulling anything.

My first mile was 7:15 which I thought might be too fast so I pulled back to a 7:25 pace for mile two. Something then happen to me during mile 3 which was run along a straightaway which was in the shade along the LIE (I think), I started passing people. My mile 3 split was 7:10 and mile four split was 6:45. My legs felt great and my HR was only at 150. I was hoping to go sub 36:00 after the first mile, but now realized I could get closer to 35:00 with a good last mile. I continued to pass runners and as I approached the finish the clock read 34:40, but the finish was on grass so I just couldn't kick it to break 35. I finished with a 35:03 which was still faster than I thought I would go today.

My cousin Joe met me after the race and then we went back to his house for breakfast. It was a great visit and was made better because there was no traffic on the way home. They just got a puppy which was absolutely adorable.I actually went straight to my son's baseball practice where I ended up throwing batting practice. My legs hate batting practice.

I have no races scheduled for next week and will try to get ready and rested for Mt Washington in two weeks.