Race Recap: Harlem Shake
4/23/2020
The Percy Sutton Harlem 5k on August 24, 2019 was one of those races I signed up for because it wasn’t completely full and I needed the 9 + 1 credit for next year’s marathon. Most of the NYRR events take place in Central Park, so it was also nice to get some different scenery for a road race.
Harlem isn’t exactly a place I explore on my own, but knowing that there’d be more runners there made me feel safe heading up there early in the morning. The course description said it was a mostly flat course for the first 2 miles along St. Nicholas Ave, then the last mile would have a very steep (but short) incline by City College and a speedy downhill section to make up time.
I found some shade in the park and warmed up, and by now I had a tried-and-true routine that I noticed put me in a good headspace for race success. It included drills from my CFSC (Certified Functional Strength Coach) certification as well as movements like cross-crawls and skipping from OS (Original Strength). Because it was only 5k distance, I also hydrated more upfront so that I wouldn’t have to rely on the fluid station.
It was a beautiful morning, and to be festive I wore the bright yellow race t-shirt even though I would have preferred my tank top. Yellow isn’t a color that goes well with red hair most of the time, so I figured I might as well get one use of the t-shirt. I wanted to keep all my swag for the season before deciding what to keep later on.
The buzzer went off and I wanted to dart ahead right away, but nobody in my corral seemed to want to break from the pack. I felt like I was taking my time in the first mile, and only after the hairpin turn was I able to pick up the pace. I saw a guy running barefoot ahead of me with perfect form, and I was determined to try to pass him at some point. I would love to try barefoot running someday because it’s good for your gait and form, but I wouldn’t risk it on a New York City street where just an hour earlier I saw a homeless person break a glass beer bottle on the concrete. I wondered what would happen if he got a piece of broken glass or a nail in his foot.
I reached the steep hill and focused on keeping a steady cadence and breath, not allowing my mind to panic. I visualized the popular illustrations from The Little Engine That Could and heard my inner monologue go, “I think I can I think I can” while chugging up to the top of the campus. Even though my plan was to not grab water at the fluid station, I really needed it. Unfortunately for me at this point in my training, I still did not master squeezing the cup properly and it spilled all over me again. I was sweaty, so you probably couldn’t tell the difference.
Whatever time I lost on the incline, I made up for on the downhill. I leaned into the descent allowing gravity to push me down as far as possible without me falling. I sprinted down fearlessly like an Olympic skier when I would usually want to pump the breaks. I just hoped that no objects would fall from the sky since I was not stopping. An object in motion stays in motion.
At the bottom of the hill, I still had about a half mile left of mostly flat ground. I wanted to continue going as fast as the downhill, but my heart and breath caught up to me and started hammering in my chest. I continued at a proper pace until I saw the finish line was in a sprintable distance and gunned it again. I finished at 23:45 with a 7:39 per mile pace, and I knew I could have shaved off about a minute off my total time if I didn’t have to weave around so many in the beginning.
Even though I had 8 miles prescribed for my training for the day and could have run to my gym to get to work, I thought I’d save my energy for the next day’s long 14-miler. I felt good about this race, and I still looked forward to more.
Collage shared on Instagram. An awesome live jazz band played at the end of the race, my official time, and the race shirt where I spilled water everywhere.