Long Island Kings Park 15k: The Fierceness (and Speed!) of Road Racing

Last weekend, I was in Long Island, NY and needed to squeeze in a run.  My Dad was taking a brief running hiatus and I wasn't psyched about pounding the pavement alone (no, there are no good trails), so we asked our local running friend Javier if there were any weekend races.  It ended up that I was in luck, and the "hilly" Kings Park 15k was being held the next morning by the Greater Long Island Running Club and USA Track & Field Long Island.  A dinner of New York cheese pizza and wine would have to do (and was delicious!)

Javier, Mom, and me: staying warm before the start.

My last road race was a 2-person CIM relay with Burnout Bear in December, so, in addition to getting in some much needed mileage, I was curious how my legs would perform on the road again.  Upon arriving at the elementary school where the race started and finished, I immediately noticed an intensity amongst the runners.  I could barely find the race registration desk in the gym amongst all of the clustered teams.  Most of the racers were showed their running club loyalty by wearing matching singlets and shorts.  I began feeling stomach butterflies.  I felt silly standing around while runners warmed up and stretched in high tech compression fabric and neon racing shoes.  My warm-up consists of bouncing up and down to keep warm in the early morning, at most.

As it grew nearer to the start time, I begrudgingly stripped down to my shorts and t-shirt and we headed outside of the school.  It was a chilling 40 degrees or so, making it a tough wait... and then the horn went off!  The first mile was slightly downhill and I was enjoying the fast start a little too much when I heard "6:30" (!) at the first mile marker.  I instantly backed off of the gas because I knew that I would soon burn out if I kept that up.  My goal was to strive for a sub-8 minute pace, but I didn't want to blow it.  So, I slowed down and held on to a sustainable pace the rest of the race.

Waiting with Javier at the start.

This was the first road race (over 5k) that I have run without headphones.  Doing so allowed me to overhear remarks made by road runners and spectators:

Around mile 4, I was running uphill alongside a man who suddenly shouted, "You can do it, Joe!  You can do it!"  I didn't see anyone around respond, but perhaps Joe was really pushing hard.  Then, 2 minutes later, I heard the man shout somewhere behind me, "Go, Joe, go!"  Apparently, Joe was his own cheerleader.  Interesting strategy.

Then, just after the 10k mark, there were several coaches with clipboards along the grassy median of an out-and-back stretch of the coarse (uphill one way, down the other).   They positioned themselves there in order to shout at their team members while running by - both ways.  One coach in green was particularly fierce.  There was a young man directly in front of me who appeared to be struggling.  It sounded like he was wheezing.  But his coach was not concerned in the slightest and yelled gruffly, "COME on, Robby!  You're NOT gonna die!  PUSH the uphill and WORK the downhill!!"  Yikes.  Poor Robby.  You just don't see things like this at trail races.

And off we go!

From about the 6 mile mark until the end of the race, I was running off and on with another woman.  Sometimes she passed me on the downhill, then I would pass her on the uphill.  (Note: these were Long Island "hills" and were often not much more than low-grade inclines.)  I enjoyed this unspoken game of tag, and I tried to keep in front of her for the remainder of the race.  This, unfortunately, did not happen as she sprinted past me up the final hill to the finish!  I have to say that she ran a great finish, and I didn't think that I had anything left... until I saw that the time on the clock read 1:09:45 and I finally pulled a final sprint from my legs, finishing in 1:09:52 and a pace of 7:30!  Woohoo!  Hill training must certainly be speed training in disguise, as they say.  I definitely could not have run this pace even 6 months ago.

My sweet Mom supporting us crazy runners.

As we headed back into the elementary school for post-race refreshments, there was a desk just inside the front door.  A lady at a computer and what looked like a receipt machine printed out a handy race result "receipt" for each runner that walked in.  The slip of paper showed each runner's race statistics and times, including the first 10k time and last 5k times, paces and places.  I had never received immediate, printed results like this before.  I usually write my results on the back of my bib days after a race when they are finally posted online, and now I didn't need to worry about that.  What a great idea... leave it to those intense road racers!

Special thanks to my Mom, Dad, and Javier for waking up early on a Saturday morning and being so supportive!  It was a memorable race and it was wonderful to have you all there. :)