Poland Springs Marathon Kickoff: Mission Accomplished

Lesson learned: Don’t register for a race that takes place the day after a holiday.

Obviously, today is technically Halloween, but festivities took place last night. I knew I had the Poland Springs Marathon Kickoff (5 miles) this morning, yet I still drowned my sorrows of UGA’s heartbreaking loss in one too many glasses of TJ’s Chardonnay. (Trader Joe, I love you, but I’ve endured far too many of your wine-induced headaches.)

Don’t get me wrong, I stopped drinking at a decent time and downed tons of water, but the cheap wine combined with too much sugar (Halloween candy, obviously, plus Emilia‘s delicious pumpkin cakes) gave me quite the headache this morning. I seriously wanted to skip the race, and might have done so had I not crashed on Emilia and Mandi‘s sofabed. Emilia provided the motivation I needed, and once the R train finally arrived, we high-tailed it to the starting line in Central Park with a good 20 minutes to spare.

Emilia hung out in my corral with me, we started together and then she took off. (Check out here own race recap here.) It was a fairly crowded race, but the only thing I have to compare it to is the Peachtree Road Race, and it was a breeze compared to those crowds.

I had no idea what time I actually crossed the starting line because the clock was several yards ahead of it, but I settled into a steady pace and crossed the first mile marker around 15:26ish. I really got into a good groove during the second mile, but the third was a bit more of a struggle for some reason. (I missed the water station at mile 3 and I had failed to eat anything before the race — I think I may have been a bit dehydrated.) Halfway through the fourth mile, I was feeling good and was able to really kick it up for the last mile. The last half mile in particular was awesome.

Although I felt a little ill after I crossed the finish line, I was psyched to see the clock read 55:12. I knew I had finished right around 50 or 51 minutes, which was my goal exactly. (Also, the fresh air helped cure my headache, and it subsided sometime during the race. Thank God.)

Sure enough, a few hours later, post-bagels and coffee, while watching “Working Girl,” Emilia and I checked our official times.

Not too shabby considering I’ve only just recently gotten into running distances longer than 3 miles. (Full disclosure: my 10K time from Peachtree was not the greatest since I had decided to run last minute and wasn’t properly prepared. I think I was 2 or so miles total of that race. I know I can knock that time out of the water in December’s Joe Kleinerman 10K.)

My goal was to maintain a steady 10 min/mile pace, and I just about did that. I was a little afraid of the hills in Central Park, but they were nothing compared to the rolling roads of Atlanta. All in all, I’d call my first NYRR race a success! I’m looking forward to participating in the 10K and 15K in December … and I may have signed up for a 4-miler through Central Park on Nov. 21.

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