Oo la la I finished it

I finished the 5 mile (8 Km) holiday run at Central Park, NY in 1 hr and 14 minutes. The entire event was a great experience from me. Me and Param woke up at 5:30 AM on Saturday morning with the help of 3 alarms :-) We caught the 6:55 AM bus to NY City. I was looking for all excuses I can use if I could not complete the 5 Mile run :)

We reached the NYRR.org office at 8 AM and collected our bib (number), participant tshirt, and timing chip and waited for Myriam & her parents (55, 60 yr old) to join us. It was 45 deg F and quite windy making it a chilly winter morning @ central park (race venue). But it was a fantastic morning with bright sun. Soon everybody joined us as we walked towards the race start after attaching the timing chip to our shoes.

I was surprised to see the 6000 odd people ready to run near the start line ranging from 6- 70 year olds. The race started at 9:35 AM and we started running. Myriam (my team lead) and Param were running alongside me. The first mile was cheerful with thousands of people running along with you. I even saw a couple running with the husband pushing their baby stroller with large wheels (i will call that a jogging baby-strolley).

All of them inspired me to keep going. I am not a runner before this run, so completing 5 miles by itself is a big task for me. My team lead & Param encouraged me throughout the race to keep going. After completing mile 1 in 20 min, I was desperately looking for mile 2 which came at 33 min as there was lesser crowd running alongside. Then we reached mile 3 in 45 min and I was desperately gasping for more air. The pain on my rib cage (probably my lungs sending me signals to catch more air) kept increasing right after mile 1 and was near its peak at mile 3. I couldn't go further and decided to walk for 30 seconds after reaching mile 3. Mile 3 came after an upgrade (slope) and I was glad I reached mile 3. After my 30 sec speed walk, I again started running towards mile 4 and I reached there at 60 min. Now both my legs and ribcage were complaining. Param & Myriam were still running besides me and told me that we were almost there. I kept going towards mile 5 asking them every 2min whether we were there at the finish line :-) But the feeling after completing the race is nothing short of delightful :-) It is interesting to note that around 5000 people finished the race. Here is how I did in the run. I now know I can do better and still a long way to go before I can run a marathon ;-)

After completing the run, we started looking for Myriam's parents who we thought might have aborted the run halfway. But I was stunned to see them walking towards the finish line at 1:40 min. Myriam ran towards them and joined them to again head back towards the finish line. She must have been really proud and happy to see her parents finishing the 5 mile.

Overall its a great experience. Me & Param headed towards home and our legs were really sore. We took rest the whole of saturday and here we are on Sunday wondering whether we should go for a jog in the park. I for one sure wish to keep going.

And now I can proudly tell my kids (in future) that I once ran 5 mile in Central Park.