I struggled a bit with my short run today. I'd wanted to go 4 miles but only managed 3.5. It was hot and while I was not really sore after yesterday's 10 M run, my energy was low. Also, I was up at 4:45 AM this morning so that I could volunteer to give out Gatorade at the 10 mile hydration station at today's NYC Half Marathon! You really do need sleep to be able to run... So sleep deprivation + heat + poor nutrition + maybe a little freaked out by the Half Marathon resulted in missing my target.
The Half Marathon was an incredible experience. I learned so much about the flow of the race, and what runners look like at different paces! The runner who knocks it out at 7 mph looks completely different from the one who does it at 11 mph. I don't just mean he looks less tired, or faster. As it turns out, body types correlate to running performance. I'm about to stereotype heavily so if this is turning you off, click on the little X above - now!
Here's what the Half Marathon looked like, with shockingly little deviation:
Head of the pack... medium build, lean men and women, with unusually narrow hips. Nobody very tall. Nobody very short. Nobody fat. Predominantly dark skinned men, and of the women - blond. Very little clothing. No sweat by mile 10. Did not take any Gatorade, water, or gel packs.
Next in line... lean, athletic men with broad hips and shoulders. On the taller side, but not very tall (5'10"-6'0"). Athletic clothing but not overly matchy-matchy, or with their name on their shirt. No sweat or a little sweat on the brow. Did not take any refreshments.
Third up... average build people who look like they probably have desk jobs (pale, eyes occupied by running strategy) but work out at the gym on a regular basis (average body fat with above average muscle mass). A range of outfits from Lululemon matchy-matchy, to names on shirts, charities on shirts, expensive sneakers. These people had good running manners - moving out of the way if they took a cup of water - staying to the left if not. Almost nobody said "thank you" for the drinks I handed them. (Which was OK - just noticed that.)
Fourth tier... lower performing average build people who looked like the above set, but who probably haven't been to the gym in a while... and had an inflated sense of their own ability when they signed up for the race - perhaps remembering fitter times! These people were dressed in the same way as the third group. but they took significantly more Gatorade. Sometimes two cups at a time. A lot of them didn't know how to successfully grab a cup and not simultaneously toss the entire yellow contents back in my face. (It was a long morning...)
Many of the fourth tier also made a point to say "thank you" when I handed them the juice - to the point where it actually felt awkward. I wanted to yell back, "Don't talk. Just keep going!" This group was also a little bit dangerous because they were stumbling around on the discarded cups around them. Some of them were too red (red like I get red!) and many were fully sweating through their clothes.
Then there was tier five. The short people. Short and fat people, short and fit people. All the short people. They hit mile 10 around 2 hours, which is about when I'd hit it. What a bummer! I'm not training to the sky's limit? You mean I'm training to my genetic capacity!? I really got bummed about this for a while and had to stop giving out Gatorade. Incidentally, 90% of old people ran with the short people. That at least was encouraging! All those racy bastards in the myriad "tall" groups would end up in my corrale anyway one day.
Finally, there were the very tall and overweight people - and there were lots of them. There was a guy from "The Biggest Loser" and his trainer, and a cameraman. But mostly these were just regular fat people and tall fat people who were running admirably fast but looked like they might have heart attacks and die at any moment. Sadly, we were told to pack up and throw all our remaining Gatorade down the city drain before all of the tall and fat people had come our way. The moving trucks were coming to take back our tables. Heartbreaking to have to tell a runner at mile 10 - sorry, you're too slow, you've missed the beverages! But, tarry on, good soldier!
There were so many funny and notable moments during the race. Like when a crazy homeless man decided to enter the race itself and try to spook people. That's not the funny part. The funny part is that a gaggle of at least 10 cops were standing RIGHT THERE eating donuts and chatting and missed the whole thing. We went over to "wake" them and they just looked annoyed that their pastry break had been interrupted.
Another not so funny thing that happened was that after we filled 28 tables up with three tiers of Gatorade and water, someone pointed out that there was a mysterious sediment floating in all the cups. This happened at 7:45 AM, 15 minutes before the first runners would be coming by! We called the head of the NYRR to come and examine the situation and he decided (what can ya do!) to just cross his fingers and hope for the best. We all were worried that someone was committing sabotage and trying to poison the runners! The floaters were weird! I have to say, that - coupled with watching one of the workers pick her nose with her gloved hand, and then plunge that same hand into the pitcher she was using to rinse it - makes me a little bit leery about taking fluid from one of these stations when I run my next race. But, what can ya do!
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