10 mile Cherry Tree Relay Race - Brooklyn, NY

Lets begin by saying; "This was so much freaking fun" Our first race for 2010 and turns out to be a great family event. We had originally made plans to do this race with Michelle, a friend from DailyMile.com. Sadly she got injured and was not able to run. We asked my dad if he was interested in doing the race, needless to say he said yes. We left the house around 8:20 am and made it to Brooklyn in 20 minutes. It took us longer to find the race site and parking than getting to Brooklyn Bridge. We got lost as we got to Prospect Park we ended up around the Zoo and Botanical garden entrances. When we realized it, Joyce TomTomed the address to the Bishop Ford HS, but we concluded that it was too far to walk back with Jocelyn and make it in time to the race. I made a turn on 8th ave and the next thing we know, we were right in front of the race site. How? well, I dunno because I was honestly lost. We found parking half a block away from the entrance, and from there things worked pretty good. 

We got to the site 30 min before the race started. First one up was Joyce.. The original plan was to leave Jocelyn with my dad at home while we did the race. Since he joined us, the plan changed to take turns watching Jocelyn. I was first to stand watch, 2 minutes before the race started all runners doing the first leg were called to the starting point and all relays to the relay spot. Jocelyn decided to call for a bathroom break. lol She was a trooper, there were at least 10 people ahead of us and no one was willing to let a 3 year old go first. When we finally made it in.. both Jocelyn and I went.. "Eewwwwww" You do not want to know how that one went, but it went well thank God..  As we were waiting for Joyce to finish the first lap, my dad was already waiting at the relay station. Jocelyn found a stick twice her size to play with.. Pictures and videos here....

Joyce finished here lap and My dad took off. I figured he was going to finish in 20-25 min. I wanted to go to the bathroom because it was too cold...lol but Joyce was in the bathroom with Jocelyn so I was watching the stuff. By the time they got back time was running short and the the line was getting bigger. So I didn't go. There was a lot of people screaming and cheering (except Michelle. LOL j/k)  but one in particular was #90. The girl was trash talking other runners and talking to her friend about how she was going to have the best time in her team. I felt bad for one of the runners that came in and his partner was MIA.. lol he went back and forth looking for the other team member. And she just said "Oh man what a moron" The guy found his relay and life went on as it should be.

My dad came in at 26 min which was not bad at all.. I took off and I though I was going slow. HA.. I checked my Garmin and it was reading a 5:26 pace and I was already at .20. I was shocked, specially after confirming with my Nike that I was running at that pace.. I slowed down, according to me... Mile 1 came in and the Garmin showed 7:56 pace "WHAT?" I was feeling really good, not tired, I felt fresh. Guess who I saw at mile 1? yeah that #90 girl. She took off a good 3-4 minutes before me and I caught up to her at mile 1. I heard of a hill at Prospect, but I was not expecting this SOB to be so long.. I was determined to tackle the sucker, and that's exactly what I did..of course my pace slowed down,, the Hill beat me but all the way at the top when my legs just could not keep up.. So I took quick walk. It was literally 5-10 seconds Just to loosen up the right knee. The #90 passed me when I took this walk but she was not too far from me. Mile 2 came up and was still feeling good, so I began to speed up again. I passed that girl and I kept increasing the pace little by little. The longest stretch was from mile 3 to the finish line. LOL I was trying to eyed the crowd so that could start sprinting.. As soon as I saw the crowd it was Flash Gordon time.. LOL I was sprinting from 3.10 till the finish line. I saw Joyce who tried to get a pic of me or a vid of me but I was too fast for the camera.. LOL .. woohoo... I crossed the finish line at 1:26:?? Which means I got a new 5K PR, but I just dunno what the exact time is and the data on Garmin is not making it any easier, but if some one can figure it out, please let me know. :-)

The race was a great experience and a great first race for the year. We didn't get to meet Michelle today, but we got to text a lot in past 2 days.. at the end, the event turned out to be awesome. After the race, we headed to Larchmont for brunch and then home. Amazing, Amazing day.