) and
we had bright sunshine. Several of our friends had decided to skip this one, but Susan and I decided we would soldier on and meet in the subway for the trip to Prospect Park.
he PPTC Cherry Tree 10 Miler, a race put on every February by the Prospect Park Track Club, has always had the nickname
"The Race for the Hard Core". Well, this year with temperatures between 0° and 4°, it truly was for the hard core. I had been feeling high all
week since my good 5K race the weekend before, but this weekend the temperatures were forecast to be record-setting lows. Saturday was the coldest February 13th
on record, and Sunday had a Central Park temperature of -1° at 6:00 AM, also a record. By race time the temperature had risen to 0°
(what a relief! ) and
we had bright sunshine. Several of our friends had decided to skip this one, but Susan and I decided we would soldier on and meet in the subway for the trip to Prospect Park.
The race start had been moved this year to be near the new skating rink, about a half mile further along the park road, and this was just inside the park from the Prospect Park Q train stop. At one point the MTA had scheduled a string of stations on this line for repairs to be replaced by a shuttle bus from Barclays Center. Luckily this was cancelled and the trains made their ususl stops; a shuttle bus would have been a disaster in this weather. So we decided to meet inside the Union Square subway station on the Q line platform for the 9:02 train, but although we were both there, we managed to miss each other and missed our train. We finally found each other and got the next Q, which got us to the park about 9:40. Normally this would have been cutting it close, but in this frigid weather it was fine.
We found our way to the skating rink cafe, literally packed with runners, changed into our running stuff (I had 5 layers) and waited till the very last minute before moving outside to the start. We all quickly got in the corral, but I decided to take some pictures of the start. I took 4 or 5, one of which is below (plus the title picture) but this resulted in freezing my hands since I couldn't manage the camera with my gloves on. My hands, even with fancy Nike gloves on, took me about 2 miles to warm up.
After the "gun" (actually an air horn), I stashed my camera in a pouch, walked back behind the starting line and got into the moving stream of runners. I probably crossed the starting line about 30 seconds after the "gun"
(the final results gave my start delay as 35 seconds). So with 5 layers, a face mask, sunglasses and frozen fingers, I was off!
The start: The course was three loops of the park road and the start and finish were at the same point, so somehow they measured the loop to be exactly 3⅓ miles. It was
USATF certified, so I'll take their word for this lucky coincidence. Unlike previous years, the start was just at the beginning of the mile long hill to the high point of the
park at Grand Army Plaza. I always found this to be a tough stretch, particularly since it comes three times, but this year it seemed relatively easy. Perhaps the
enforced slowing down that the temperatures and all my layers had on my pace was the reason. Whatever the reason, I didn't dread coming back to this hill
twice more as I had in the past.
1st loop: As I got moving, I made a conscious effort to really ease into my pace. It was easy, easy, easy for the first half mile or so to let my muscles warm up. The last thing I needed was some kind of muscle strain due to cold-induced tightness.
I love the point in the race route where you are almost to the top of the long hill and you can see the runners across the park turning down the other side of the hill. I kept my pace strong but sustainable — but I wasn't clocking the miles. In fact there were no mile markers out at all and I had a feeling that in this weather, no one really cared. The topography on the east side of the park from Grand Army Plaza to Bartel-Prichard Square is a gradual down hill with a few dips along the way. Then we turn left and follow the loop down a slightly steeper hill, past the old finish line and finally reach the lake. I knew the skating rink was on the lake shore about half way around the lake, but still on each loop, it seemed further and further to make that last half mile. When I finished my first loop, the clock said about 33:30, so subtracting my guess of 30 seconds start delay, I was under my goal pace (to break 1:40:00 or 10 minutes per mile). I stopped for water and Gatorade and got moving again.
2nd loop: I did not dread the long hill this time and this probably helped my confidence. And surprised as I was, my hands were now too warm and my gloves were getting wet from perspiration, so I actually took off my gloves, tucked them into my wind breaker pocket, and just kept my hands inside the ends of my sleeves, where I could regulate my hand temperature by moving the tips of my fingers slightly out, or slightly inside the sleeve. I'm sure most of you have done something similar over the years.
This time around I paid more attention to the sights along the loop: the Lichfield Villa, the Picnic House, the view across the Long Meadow, the Band Shell, the Lake with the Parade Grounds across Parkside Avenue and the Peristyle (where did they get that name?). Then came that never ending half mile to the skating rink and the loop was done. This time the clock showed about 1:06:30 (66:30) so I knew I had done another loop in 33 minutes — very good pacing — but now the hard part was to sustain it for one more loop.
3rd loop: The first thing I did after passing through the finish line after the 2nd loop was to take off my wind breaker and tie it around my waist, as well as getting another drink (the only water station was here at the start/finish line). This took maybe 15-20 seconds off my time but probably helped keep my body temperature in balance for the 3rd loop. Without the wind breaker I lost some heat through evaporation, but as long as I kept plugging along I was not cold. There were however a few spots near the top of the park where the wind was fairly chilly. My pace was harder to keep and now those same landmarks became not interesting sights, but rather markers of my progress. Of course, it seemed to take longer than before to get from one to the next, but my pace was still pretty strong.
| Finished: | 1:39:41 |
| Gun Time: | 1:40:16 |
| Pace: | 9:58 |
But one unwelcome reappearance of and old nemesis of mine showed up in the last mile. This is numbness and eventually pain in my right forefoot that sets in after a certain number of miles in my runs — the exact point may vary from 5 to 10 miles into a run. This time it started to bother me by about mile 9, and by the finish it was actually hurting my foot, but not to the extent of slowing me down. Let's just say this was one more reason to be very glad to cross the finish line. And as is usually the case, the numbness / pain subsided a few minutes after I stopped running.
I spent a few minutes at the finish line and I soon heard a voice "Papa Bear". It was Heidi who had just finished a few minutes after me, and about a minute after Heidi, there was Susan. All of us felt it was a great day and a great race and much (but not all) of the hype about the low temperatures ("Polar Vortex!", "-30° wind chills!") was unwarranted. In fact both Heidi and Susan said they have had worse times out skiing.
I could not stay long out there in the cold so I said I would meet them in the skating rink cafe where we had changed. I stopped at the van on the way and asked the timing guy about our age group places. I found I was first in the 70+ group and Susan was 2nd in the 60-64 group. Good news all around.
I got back inside, picked up my age group award and bumped into a few folks I knew, such as this group enjoying the warmth: But it turns out I was waiting in the wrong spot to meet Heidi and Susan. I had inadvertently gone not to where we had changed before the race, but to another spot one door away. So I had managed to not meet Susan at a rendezvous both before and after the race!
But reunited again, we shivered our way to the Q train and about a half hour later said our
good byes at the Union Square station. BUT before parting company, we chose a bench where some folks were sitting next to the stairs down to the Q train, and agreed THAT is where
we'll meet next time. Now, if we can just manage to remember that when the next time comes along.
That night I got my final results from the NYCRUNS online site:
| Rank | Split | Pace | |
| 1st Lap | 343 | 32:59 | 9:54 |
| 2nd Lap | 334 | 33:03 | 9:55 |
| 3rd Lap | 330 | 33:38 | 10:06 |
| Finish | 330 | 1:39:41 | 9:58 |
So what's my next target race? The Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in Washington DC on April 3rd. And the target pace? To do better than this one, but of course.