NYRR Ted Corbitt 15K

Friday night as I was chilling and cursing at enemies in League of Legends, I suddenly realized my last 9+1 race to qualify for NYC Marathon 2020 was on Saturday rather on Sunday as races are, usually. Saturday's tomorrow, or just a bit more than 10 hours from then... Dafuq...

I went to bed at almost 2am, then got up around 5:30-6am. It was okay though because I slept pretty much the whole day during the past few days. I didn't bother having breakfast at this point, just collected my running gear, put them on then walked to the local LIRR station. Made it to Central Park around 7:35am.

Since we moved out here, races in the city have been such a hassle. I might get used to them, or I might not. I'm still ambivalent about 9+1 for 2021, because of all this commuting. But I will have run 3 consecutive NYCMs, should I continue the streak?!?

It was cold, damn it! Mid-December weather in Central Park. We were greeted with the occasional chilling breezes, brrrrr... I reluctantly took off my jacket. At this point I had fleece cycling pants, T-shirt and a winter running long-sleeves. They kept me not feeling too cold. Plus, I was going to take it easy for my last qualifying 9+1 race, remember?

Off we went, I glanced at my watch, I was averaging 9:15-30/mile. Not bad, I should be done in a little over one and a half hour. We were supposed to do 2 small loops, that means 2x Cat hill ugh, no Three Sisters though so that's something non-negative.

I was recovering, but I actually started to feel pretty good beside the fact that I was heating up due to being overdressed. I reevaluated my position and decided to push it a bit, who knows, bonking a 15K is not that bad, the walk would be a lot shorter than bonking a marathon. So off I went to around 8:30/mile

Started out easy, then fucked it let's do dis! Plus a few water stops here and there.

Seven miles in I started to feel the bonking was not gonna happen today. I kept pushing to low 8/mile and occasionally high 7/mile. During the last 2-3 miles I actually paced myself to another runner. This helped keeping it fun. Stryd kept reporting split about 75 yards too early.

I got to the final water station, took a small sip then aimed it at the carton box. Just a mile to go. I think I average mid 7:00/mile here. It felt a bit heavy, I didn't have enough gas to sprint at this point. It was over though, and I PR'd the 15K distance. I don't quite remember my last 15K, so this didn't matter that much. However, this was my last race of the decade, it was something!