went into this race with not-a-little skepticism. I had a fall and made a mess of my knee a bit over a week ago and had done practically no running since. My right pectorals were also sore from the fall, probably getting a "jolt" through my right arm. So you might say expectations were not high. But nevertheless I wanted to do my best and who knows how it would go.

I trudged over to get the Q train at Union Square at 6:20 and it was a bit chilly. I had decided I would wear a long sleeve top over a light undershirt, and tights. Temperatures were about 50° when I left the house, so I wore my heavier jacket.

I got to the Prospect Park subway station, a bit too early. But the baggage check and bib pickup was up on Center Drive so I got a good warm up doing a jog/walk. The route was actually a comparatively easy one for Prospect Park (see map) with most of the long hill on the East Drive cut, but it was a bit of a walk to get from packet pickup/baggage area to the start.

Prospect Park 5K
	Split
Mile 1	9:20
Mile 2	8:55
Mile 3	9:39
last .1	0:55
Finish	28:49
Pace	9:17

The 10K went off first — they started further up the East Drive where the hill peaks. They had by far the majority of runners. We took off about 15 minutes later and I got a good start from near the front of the pack. I pushed it but had no idea how fast a pace I could hold. I ran a 9:20 the first mile and then an 8:55 (which I didn't see on my watch when I pushed the split button) on the rolling net downhill of the west side. I fell off a bit on the last mostly flat third mile around the lakes at the south end of the park, but I realized that this was turning out well. Maybe those runless days since my fall, rather than lowering my fitness level, actually gave me a good rest.

The splits in the table speak for themselves. But I couldn't add them up in my head while I was running — and I didn't even see the 8:55 for my 2nd mile — so when I got near the finish and saw the clock at 28 minutes with the seconds moving up through the 40s, I was surprised, to say the least. I gave it that extra push you never know you'll have, and finished with an official time of 28:49. This was better than all but three of the 15 5K races I did last year, and those three were only a few seconds faster! And when I got home I found I had finshed first in the 70+ age group!

Not. Bad. At. All!

I put together some conclusions that others might profit from. This includes some non-running activities I did leading up to the race. Come to think of it, practically all my activities leading up to the race were non-running.

• Schedule a fall 9 days before the race.
• Do little or no running between the fall and the race.
• Spend two hours on your feet at a museum the day before.
• Drink one beer, one and a half glasses of wine, and one shot glass of Irish Cream the night before.
• Get to the race too early.
• Say a Hail Mary.
• When the horn sounds, run like hell!