Last race of the year

The Ted Corbitt 15K took place on a frigid 26F cloudy Saturday morning. We just missed the snowstorm that braced New York City that started around noon yesterday. Right now as I peer through my window I can see a foot of snow that has coated the city overnight.

I started at near the front of the corral with Robert this time around. I wanted to avoid being stuck with slower runners and not able to hit my target of a sub-1 hour race. I was able to find my rhythm early on and already by mile 1 I joined a pack of 2-3 runners running in the high 6:10s with Robert was just a few yards behind us. I was able to move ahead of this group when a runner wearing a singlet with Portuguese written on it passed us (I was never able to find the runner at the end to find out whether he was indeed Brazilian). I was running with him and really fast woman when one of my shoelaces came undone (something that has been happening a lot to me lately in my regular runs). I had to go to the side and when I went back to the course, I was passed by the pack of guys that I had ditched as well as Robert.

In a way that became an incentive. I did not want to think about the clock and concentrated on only chasing them. By the time we hit the top of Cat Hill I had already caught up to Robert and together we were able to slowly join the group of runners I ran with in the beginning of the race. On mile 6 I was already in front of this group and then ditched them for a second time. Soon on my sights was the guy with the singlet in Portuguese. After passing him, the woman I was running with on mile 4 was yards in front of me. I eventually passed her before mile 8.

All I had left was 1.3 miles to go, but all the effort I did started to take its toll. I had no kick at the end and saw myself being passed by a few runners yards away from the finish line. By all in all, I am please with my 59.09 time. It is an improvement of more than 3 minutes from my previous 15K back in March. I was pleased to finish the year with another PR, despite the shoelace problem and the arctic weather.