In my quest to get entry to the 2017 NYC Marathon, I ran my second race with New York Road Runners on April 24. Like the Run for the Parks 4M, The Run As One was another four mile loop around Central Park, but this time to raise money and awareness for lung cancer.
The route for the Run As One was identical to the Run for the Parks, a run around the middle loop of Central Park in New York City. We started on the east side of the park and headed north as our corrals were released with the sound of the horn. We quickly passed the 72nd street transverse and headed up cat hill. The famous statue was upon our left side before we had gotten very far and passed the 85th street transverse for the first mile marker. Without stopping we continued up the east side until we got to the 102nd street transverse and turned left. The second mile marker was in the middle of the transverse as we headed west until we turned left and headed south. Straight down the west side to 72nd street and turning left onto the transverse to complete our four mile course around Central Park for my first New York race of the year.
I hadn’t run at all since the Dark Side Half Marathon a week before, and my performance suffered for it. I ran the loop in 37:30, about 3 minutes worse than my performance a few weeks earlier. To me this is an indicator that I need to get out and run more to continue to maintain the levels I have reached in previous races, and something I look forward to as the weather warms up.
