Nicholas Pedone 5k Recap

Whew! What a race. Nasty-ass hills. Great turnout. Lots o' kiddies. What a free for all start!   Kids are funny. They took off like bats out of hell - and then collectively started dropping off like flies by 1/4 mile in. That was fine, really - as it cleared up the road and the race started to quiet down considerably.

Nicholas is the nephew of an acquaintance of mine . He is the cutest thing, and is being treated for stage 3 neuroblastoma, diagnosed right after Hurricane Sandy.  Friday evening, we discussed the difficulties of putting together a race like this. The proceeds were to help pay for the medical bills. They were not expecting such a large turnout. They were concerned they would not have enough t-shirts - enough food at the end. The timing company explained to her that this was the biggest first time run that they had put on in 10 years. 700 registered, 659 raced. The community of Glen Cove and surrounding towns and villages are incredible!

Sweet Nicholas and overall first place winner. He gave his trophy to Nicholas!

All the finishers signed!

Nicholas' cousin and organizer, 17 year old Anthony Famiglietti

It was about 45 degrees at the start. And what would a race be without 20 mile an hour winds?!? And huge, bad ass hills?

Actually, the first half was a pretty much a breeze, mostly downhill. But in a loop, you have to get back to the elevation from which you started! I walked 3 times, I think. I took my walks at what I thought were the steepest part of the elevations, about 30 seconds each. 

At the turn coming around back toward the finish, a woman with great form and pace had passed me. She looked to be older than me. I basically followed her to the finish. She took walk breaks too, but we chose to take them at different times. 

She crossed the finish about 30 seconds before me, and although I remembered to smile for the camera at the end (or video, I couldn't tell) I forgot to shut off my devices. Ugh. But, the woman I was pacing came up to me at the water table and told me how great my running looked! I was thrilled! She looked to be a seasoned runner, and here I was, admiring HER race! 

All in all, I'm a happy runner.

I did eat a P90X Cafe Mocha bar (caffeine?) about an hour before the race (new variable, bad) and 1/2 scoop of Cytomax in 12 ounces of water (also something new, from reading what my sister uses)

I thought the pieces of my heart would flutter to the ground after exploding in my chest.  But, I repeatedly admonished myself for changing my pre-race fueling and then told myself I would not die, COULD not die of a cardiac episode during this race. I just kept up with my rhythmic breathing, and made it out ok. Needless to say I'll never use THAT combination again.

I ran in the Ravennas. No plantar pain.

Oh, and Nature Valley's Crunchy Oats 'n Dark Chocolate  bar is awesome.

26:44  8:36 pace

2/31 in age group 50-59

13/408 women

48/659 overall 

Booyah.

Runmeter Data
Magellan Data