This race was advertised to have chocolate fountains and mimosas – can’t beat that!

As I mentioned before, it used to be held near my house and they gave out phenominal bling but when attendance declined they moved to Schenectady.  Last year, I wasn’t running so this is my first year running this race in its new location.

I have run two 5k races in this park so I know that it has some hills but nothing too bad. I finished one in 2010 at 30:13 and one in 2011 at 29:22 so I had hoped to be in this general range. My tennis friend MaryPat said she would run it with me (but she’s not that dependable).  I have a mah jongg friend, Bev, also who planned to be there. Originally rain was in the forecast but that has changed.  It was cloudy and cooler.

I must admit that I felt very sluggish when I got up in the am.  I definitely should have gone to bed earlier and skipped the creme brulee at dinner last night.

I had picked up my race shirt and bib yesterday so there was no need to rush to the race.

I had my usual breakfast and decided to wear the race shirt since it was the same color as the shirt I was going to wear and grabbed a jacket (just in case).

The race was in Central Park and there are a lot of places to park but I followed someone in and wound up parking in a new great spot (right across from the start line) that I never knew about.

I immediately found my friend MaryPat.

Then I bumped into Bev and introduced her to Mary.

Soon the race began.  At this point the sun was in and out and it was warm.  But there were ominous clouds overhead.

As usual, I started near the front but quickly the fast ladies sped by me. My legs felt really heavy and I thought I was running very slow but I actually wasn’t.

The course was pretty nice, you ran around the duck pond and through the woods and ended back at the pavilion. (It was different than the course I ran here previously.)

As was my last race, this race was a long 5K – at least 3.2 miles.  Oh well.  As with the my last race, I really tired during mile 2 and then got some energy back at the end.

According to my Garmin, I finished at 29:37.  I think the official results said 29:38.  Under 30 minutes – I was pleased. After you crossed, they handed you a rose:

By this point, the wind had picked up, it was starting to drizzle and the temps had dropped almost 10 degrees – brrrr!

I grabbed my jacket and went back to watch Mary cross.

Then we went to get food…the best post-race food I have seen lately. In addition to cookies, bagels, bars, pastries, bananas, chocolate milk, etc

As I was about to leave, I glanced at the race results and saw that I had won first in my Age Group!  Hooray for a new age group!

I was happy!  What a surprise!

Race Stats:

finished 51 out 148

Splits:

mile 1: 9:09
mile 2: 9:40
mile 3: 9:24
.2: 8:13

Now I am taking a race break … my next one is’t until June 1 – the Freihofer’s Run for Women.

Happy Running!  How did you spend your Mother’s Day?