Susan Komen Race for the Cure
Today was my next second 5k since being back to running. I knew I was going to do this race since I started Couch to 5k and one of the nurses in the ER, Andrea told me she was organizing a team for the Albany Med ER. My boyfriend Bryon decided to come and cheer me on and we got there early to make sure we had parking. He brought a lawn chair, coffee, newspaper and a book. I did a slow jog around the Empire State Plaza and then went to find the Albany Med ER team.
The amount of people racing in this race was crazy. There were 2145 runners and it was overwhelming at the starting line. So many people. The first stretch was an uphill on Madison Ave and I started out strong but shortly thereafter, I felt my good old asthma kick in and my hip was acting up. Then I got a cramp. But I worked through it. After the hill on Madison Ave, we entered Washington Park. I ran my first mile in around 13 minutes. I was around 28:30 at the second mile marker, which surprised me because I felt like I was falling apart on the second mile. I kicked it in during the third mile. Here are a few pics (taken on Bryon's droid) of me back on Madison Ave coming down the hill for the finish.
Since this was a large race, there was a lot of excitement by the finish line. Tons of people where jeering everyone on. I was tired but I could help but run fast down that hill. My time was 41:10 but the official chip time was 40:38 so I ran my race close to five minutes faster than the Albany Law Alumni Run.
Running in large races has some pros such as the excitement and mix of abilities. The cons are that since there are so many people, you get pinned in sometimes. Overall, I would run a big race again.