Race Recap: Washington Heights Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5K

Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
-Dr. Seuss

Happy belated birthday Dr. Seuss!

I had a fabulous race day today!  Today was my first New York Road Runners race of 2014.  NYRR offers automatic entry into the New York City marathon through a program known as 9 + 1.  Runners that compete in 9 scored runs and volunteer for 1 race receive automatic entry into the next years NYC Marathon.  So today I started out my journey towards the 2015 NYC Marathon with a relatively easy and super fun St. Patty's Day themed 5K in Washington Heights.

Loved the t-shirts

Last year I paced 8:30 for this race and was super excited about it!  However, I was pretty confident I could beat that so my goal for this race was to beat my 5K PR (personal record) of 8:03.  This was my time in the Harlem 5K in August.  Washington Heights has some monster hills, though, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to beat this.  Fortunately the weather was not too cold today, so after breakfast and coffee with CeCe I hopped on the subway and headed up to the Heights.  Columbia University Medical Center, where I completed my masters program, was at the start of the race course so it was fun to be back.  I was extremely pleased when I finished in 24:39 (7:57 pace!), and even more proud of myself for passing on the green bagels.

It's always fun to repeat races to see how much you've improved.  This time last year I was training for my very first half marathon, and looked at the runners that continued to run after the race like they were slightly insane.  This year I ran down the West Side Highway back to CeCe's apartment, about 4 miles, after the race.  It was a little cold since I was no longer running at a racing pace, but it was beautiful.

George Washington Bridge

I wrapped up the day with a free yoga class at Pure Yoga on the UES hosted by Dr. Metzl.  The studio is gorgeous and extremely peaceful, and I've been extraordinarily tight so it was just what I needed.  It was a great way to end race day!  

One race down- 8 to go!  Next up- NYC Half Marathon in 2 weeks!!!

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