Race Report: Ted Corbitt 15K

DATE: December 04; 8:30 AM

DISTANCE: 15 KM

PLACE: central park, MANHATTAN, NY

WEATHER:  38 F  

OFFICAL TIME / PACE: 1:36:07/ 10:19 MIN/MI

SWAG: Raggedy Beanie

Before getting into the race recap, I’m going to go into a bit of a rant. I gotta say that I was quite disappointed with NYRR, the organizers of the race. Normally, runners receive a long-sleeve tech shirt with Ted Corbitt’s name and image. Actually, for pretty much all of the races that honor runners, there is some sort of branding with the individual’s name and/or image on the swag. What did we receive for this annual race? A plain ol’ beanie.

No branding, no nothing. WTF? In fact, these are the beanies that are given to race volunteers. Some may ask who cares? A few facts about Ted Corbitt and his contributions to running:

• Considered a father of American long-distance running
• A co-founder and the first president of NYRR, you know the organization that sponsors the freaking reace
• First African-American to run a marathon in the Olympics
• Ran ultramarathons until his 80s
• Was signficant in transforming the NYC Marathon from a “simple” race in Central Park to one that we know today, which crosses all five bouroughs of NYC.

It just seems weird that the NYRR did not have any SWAG with his name considering he was a co-founder of the damn organization. Also, NYRR has been on an intense diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) campaign for the past couple of years so not doing more to honor Ted Corbitt seemed very lazy. Well NYRR did have facts on signs about Ted Corbitt along the course as if many runners were going to stop or slow down to read those signs. *side eye* The organization said they were going to honor Ted Corbitt through “storytelling”. Ok, whatever. Wait, one more thing that I realized while going off on this rant. NYRR did not have a live singer for the Star-Spangled Banner and played some prerecorded instrumental. Lemme stop here and get into the race recap.

Honestly, I would have preferred that NYRR say that there was a shipping/supply issue and the swag for the 15K would be distributed over the next few weeks.

Let’s get on with it:

I was happy with my race performance. No, I am not where I want to be physically, but I think that I’m getting there. Since I received my COVID booster the day before the race (bad planning on my part), I was a bit nervous about how the booster was going to affect me.

Luckily, I did not have any adverse reactions to the booster aside from general soreness in my shoulder. Come to think about it, my shoulder is still a bit sore five days later. Oh well . . . what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. I think this should apply to my immune system. *Oh shoot, this reminds me that I need to schedule a COVID test. Nothing serious, I like to get tested every 1-2 weeks.*

0-5K

The first 5K was a bit rough because I did not adequately stretch or warm up prior to the race. Eh, but that’s pretty normal for me . . . unfortunately. However, at times, I felt like I was running too fast because I was passing a lot of people.

At times, I had to force myself to slow down because I wanted to run the entire race without walking or burning out near the end. Some will know that Central Park has quite a few hills so I wanted to keep some fuel in the tank for the second loop of the race.

5K-10K

At this point, I really got into the groove and managed to run at a constant (albeit slower) pace. I do not know why, but the miles felt longer for some strange reason during this portion. I think this had to do with this 15K being my first race since last month’s marathon. Actually, I did feel strong both physically and mentally during this part of the race. Then again, maybe going to bed at a decent hour played a role in my positive sentiment. Who knows, maybe it was the booster. 😉

10K-15K

I was really surprised with myself because I managed to run sub 10 min – my average pace for the final 5K was 9’47”. Ok, I know that this pace is not anything to write home about, but it was a nice feat for me. During the pandemic (well, actually right before the pandemic) my running/cardio fitness has gone to sh*t so it was nice to run a negative split for a distance greater than 5K in a very, Very, VERY long time.

While this was not my fastest Ted Corbitt 15K by any means, I think/hope this is a sign of more positive things to come for my running (and general fitness) life.

Question of the Day:

When was the last time that you surprised yourself (in a good) way during a race?

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