Terrier tracks

Last Saturday was the Fitness Mind Body Spirit 4 mile race in Central Park. This was my first real race back after my surgery. I was planning on really trying for a good time on this one. Chelly had just returned from a week-long biking trip and hadn't run in a while, so she was just going to go out for the workout.

The weather was lovely, if a little warm compared to the days before. I lined up a little far back, but there didn't seem to be that big a turnout, so I was hoping I wouldn't lose much time at the start. They decided to split the field this year between men and women. The men ran their race earlier and were basically done by the time we started. When the horn went off we started to move up. I ended up losing about a minute at the start. Don't mind that, but the people who insist on lining up well ahead of the pace they can make are REALLY annoying. I was back in the 9:00/mile area and was having to weave around walkers...crazy.

The race went pretty well. I was pushing my pace a bit and I could feel it. The running still doesn't feel as effortless as it did prior to the surgery, but I can do it. I was trying to stay in the low 9:00/mile vicinity. I passed through the first mile at about 8:53..whoo! Second mile I stopped for water and still ran 8:33. Ok, slow down, slow down. Third mile went in 9:11. Maybe a little too slow. So I pushed it and flew through the fourth mile in 8:17. That's it! I finished in 35:00 for my second fastest 4 miles ever. I was pretty spent, but it felt good.

About a tenth of a mile from the finish line I saw what looked like a familiar face on the sideline, yelling encouragement to the women. It looked like fellow blogger, Brooklyn. I called out to him and he turned, so I knew I got it right. He didn't recognize me in the middle of the race. After the finish, I backtracked to where I had seen him and he was still there. Nice to meet a local runner who I only know through this virtual world. We chatted while I waited for Chelly to finish. I pointed her out to him as she went by, but he, unfortunately, had to leave before she was able to get back to us.

I went home soon after the race was over as I was tired and Chelly had some errands to run. We were going to see each other the next morning for the NYC Century Ride and would have hours to catch up.

Sunday I got to the park bright and early with my bike. Hundreds of riders were milling about, some leaving for the longer rides, others waiting for the shorter rides to start. We were doing the 35 mile option which was scheduled to depart at 7:30am. The route would take us south through Manhattan, over the Brooklyn Bridge and then north through Brooklyn and Queens. A rider over the Triboro Bridge would then return us to Manhattan. I was kind of nervous, riding on the city streets with traffic and all the other bikes. But it wasn't too bad. Manhattan is relatively quiet at that time of the morning on a Sunday and we had a pretty pleasant ride down to the Brooklyn Bridge. Over the bridge on the walkway, which is wide and a wonderful view of the harbor. The bikes started to bottleneck at the end where we had to make a right angle turn and cross a street. I think I got flustered and it was crowded so I missed the cut in the curb onto the street. I totally lost my balance and landed hard on my left side in the middle of the street. I could feel a pain in my shoulder and my first terrified thought was that I had dislocated it. I managed to get untangled from the bicycle and take myself off the road. I tested the shoulder and was able to move it and could feel my hand. Whew! Not dislocated. It was still very painful. I also had blood all over my left knee and elbow.

I managed to ride to the halfway point in Prospect Park, where I got all my scrapes cleaned by some very eager EMTs. I decided to continue, as it was just as easy to ride as it would be to quit in Brooklyn. The ride would have been really nice if I hadn't been in such pain. Although, I did find out that I am terrified of biking on the Triboro walkway. I walked my bike across the whole bridge because I just couldn't work up the nerve to ride it. Between the panic of being up there and the pain, I was pretty hysterical when I reached the end. At that point I was only about three miles from finishing the damn ride. So I just soldiered on and walked all the difficult spots.

Once I got home I decided, based on some internet research, that I had likely broke my collarbone or badly bruised it. I didn't go to the doctor, because most of my info tells me that there isn't much they could do for this injury except take an x-ray and tell me for sure if it is broken. There's no displacement of the bones. It hurts, but I have full use of the hand, the shoulder isn't bruised and the swelling is mostly gone. I still can't fully use the arm without pain and the muscles in the area have been aching from the compensatory positions I've been using to decrease the pain.

No running, however, as that definitely hurts. So I'm back to square one. Damn.