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Westchester Medical Center Running Festival; The 10K that wasn't (Read 381 times)

    Today I participated in the "10K" race of this series. Usually, there is a Marathon, Half Marathon and "quarter Marathon" (6.55 miles) and it is called the 'Marathon Series", but this year there was just the Half and a 10K...except that the 10K was announced at the beginning of the race as being 6.55 miles. Now I shall ask my more mathematically inclined friends to help me but wouldn't that be a 10.5K race? There were about 223 runners in this race which started 30 minutes after the half marathon. I started out fairly strong, after all those hills on the first half--short going up, long comming down, I was huffing and puffing--a young guy who passed me asked if I was all right. I nodded and continued on. The next section was a bit easier. I finished in about 58:30, about an 8:55 minute pace (I saw the results but did not write them down), when is more than a minute faster that 2 years ago and almost two minutes faster than last year when I had some sort of minor injury. But the rat race is catching up, I took third place in my age group because some actual good runners showed up (I am assuming most of the good runners go to Chicago and elswhere today, which explains why I seem to place in my age group each year. I have four age group awards in 151 races and three of them are here). Legal Seafood is no longer a sponcer of this race, so no longer can runners look forward to a hot clam choder at the end of the race--although today was more of an "Indian Summer" kind of day. Afterwards, I got one of those massages--I asked the masseuse to work on my calves which were tight even for me. Jaime Lee and her boyfriend were supposed to run with me but there was a death in the family and she could not make it--so I had no one to witness my "triumph"..when they finally do join me in a race, I'll probably stink up the joint. Now I am off to visit my in-laws in the nursing home. Good luck to all the Chicago Marathon runners, and see you in Staten Island (hopefully) next month.
    I'm condemned by a society that demands success when all I can offer is failure. -Max Bialystock
      Update: my clock time was 58:13, my chip time was 58:02.
      I'm condemned by a society that demands success when all I can offer is failure. -Max Bialystock