| So I got an exciting notice on my door Thursday evening. UPS had attempted to deliver a package from Downtube.com. My Bike!!! The delivery attempt wasn't until after 6pm. This meant that any instructions I sent through their website regarding the delivery wouldn't actually take effect until Monday. I wanted my bike! The notice said that the attempt on Friday would be between 10 and 6. So I stayed home from work on Friday with eager expectations of my first ride.
I hung around the apartment on Friday. Afraid to even take the dog out for a walk. We just made quick jaunts out to the front lawn. I couldn't miss the delivery after taking the day off. I got some tidying done. Did a little stitching - I'm working on Lamb's Halloween by Earth Threads. I'm doing the piece on a hand dyed fabric called Fossil by Picture This Plus. Ate lunch. Checked out every large vehicle that passed by the building. Finally, at about 2pm, I saw a UPS truck go up the side street near my door. After about 20 minutes, Shannon was desperate to go out, so I walked her to the corner to see if the truck was still down the street. Gone! What happened?!?
My package finally arrived at 6:05. I was so pissed. A totally wasted day and I could have easily made it home in time to get the delivery. Also, since I now had to run all the errands I hadn't done earlier, I wasn't going to be able to take a ride!
I did unpack it and set it up so I could get a look at it. Isn't it lovely? All shiny and new! It's still sitting in that exact spot. It poured all day Saturday. I haven't got to ride it yet. Aaargggh!
Sunday was the NYRR Anniversary Run. The race that grew. It started out as a 4.8k race (48th Anniversary, 4.8k - get it??) But then it became a 4.8 MILE race. That's some serious distance for me. I can do the distance, but haven't raced it much. And I have a big 10k race planned for next weekend. So the plan was to just run it at training pace, or a little bit faster. The course was around Central Park clockwise, which is the direction of the 10k, so it would be a good training run. Sure.
Sunday was lovely. Cool and overcast at about 60 degrees fahrenheit. Perfect running weather. The running joke all morning was how everyone would get a personal record in that race. I set off at a comfortable pace. I tried to ignore most of the other runners and just run my run. My 1 mile split was 9:05. Not too bad. Was planning a little slower, but I was happy with that.
Continued running at what felt like a comfortable pace. Mile 2 - 8:44. Oops! But I think there was a bit of downhill because the second mile was a lot of people's fastest one.
Mile 3 and 4 were both at 8:56. What can I say, it felt really comfortable. I didn't feel like I was pushing at all. I was thinking about really pushing the last half mile or so - just to see what I could do. I still felt fresh and comfortable. So when I hit about 4.3 miles I started to turn it on. I was breezing by runners. I was actually shocked at how much I had. My Garmin caught the last .9 miles (I forgot to hit the button right at the finish line) at a 8:00 mile pace. Wow! I've done a faster mile, but to pull that out in the last mile of a 5 mile race, wow!
My official time was 44:42 with a chip time of 42:49. That's really faster than I wanted to go, but I'm not too worried. I don't think I'm going to have any problem with the 10K. I should even be able to manage a time easily under an hour, if nothing goes wrong. At this time last year, I was gearing up for my first race - a 5k which I finished in a little under 35 minutes. I was concerned about finishing. My goal was just not to walk. I'm floored at how much better I'm doing now.
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