Great Cow Harbor Race Review

Great Cow Harbor Race Recap

I woke up at 6am, put on my awesome Boston Strong t-shirt (Courtesy of The Emerging Runner.), popped an ibuprofen (Mistake numero uno...) for my calcified shoulder that doesn't seem to be getting better, and two generic Imodiums (Uh-huh!), chugged a glass of orange juice, and packed three sleeping children into the car (Child #1 stayed home because...she's twelve).  We left the house by 7 and arrived at the Laurel Avenue School in Northport by 7:40.  I found The Petite Pacer (TPP) easily and she handed me my bib that she graciously picked up the night before.  We had over 45 minutes to kill before the start so we went inside the school to look for some pre-race water.  I found the most awesome water fountain in the history of water fountains (Cold as though it had a direct line to the peak of Mount Everest.  Okay, slight exaggeration, but man, did it hit the spot!).  We ran into Mr. & Mrs, Freighbor which is always a treat.  Mrs. Freighbor is training for the New York City Marathon and Mr. Freighbor is a trooper!  We also met up with our friend Leah whose bib TPP also picked up.  (I'm not sure what happened to the indentation in this paragraph, but I can't fix it.  I tried.)

We headed to the start and waited on line for the porta potties.  I was confident (Generic Imodiums!) I didn't have to go, but I wanted to chit chat with my buds for a bit.  While talking shop, I realized I didn't have my Casio watch (Mistake numero due...).  I would have to rely on Map My Run on my phone to keep track of my progress.  By 8:25, we headed to our corrals.  Because of the large amount of participants (4,300), there is a staggered start.  My bib number began with the number 4 so that meant I would be starting 4 minutes after the gun went off.  

Today was the third time I ran Cow Harbor.  It is a prestigious 10k ranked among the top races in the country.  The course leads you along the scenic, hilly north shore coast of Long Island.   It is well organized with plenty of crowd support.  The first time I ran Cow Harbor was in 2004 during Hurricane Ivan.  That race was almost a biathlon because you could practically swim to the finish line.  The water was knee deep, no joke.  My second Cow Harbor was in 2012 just a couple of weeks before the Baltimore Marathon.  After months of preparation, I was pretty happy with my time of 49:11, over four minutes faster than the previous attempt.  This time around, I wasn't expecting much.  Since the Boston Marathon, I have been running anywhere from a measly six to twenty miles per week.  This is half as much as the base I had been maintaining since the beginning of 2012.  I just wanted to finish Cow Harbor, preferably without walking and ideally under fifty minutes.  

The first mile (7:48 pace) of the race is great mainly because it is mostly downhill.  As I was taking it easy down the steep Scudder Avenue, Mr. Bozo-I'm-Acting-Like-I've-Never-Run-A-Race-Before flies through the crowd at full speed, arms flailing and all.  I shook my head and quietly wondered to myself at what point I would be seeing his dumb ass doing the walk-of-shame.  Turns out it would be James Street, mile two (7:55 pace).  James Street is the infamous hill in this race with an almost 200 foot ascent.  Steep.  I find the best way to tackle this hill is to just keep moving, if you can.  I make it a point to never walk this early.    The next couple of miles are surprisingly easy peasy.  Then comes the never ending Waterside Road mile.  It is a slight incline, but it feels like it will never end (see previous sentence).  A few people were shouting, "Boston Strong!" which helped me along tremendously.  It finally does end when we make a right at Pumpernickel's Restaurant onto Main Street.  There is a small uphill which basically does me in temporarily.  When I reached the top, I ran out of steam and decided to walk for a little bit ("This is a fun run", "This is a fun run," I rationalized to myself.  I knew a PR was not happening from the get-go).   I saw a sign that read, "It's all downhill from here!" and then I was off again.  The sign did not lie.  Map My Run told me I hit mile 6 in 47:xx which was totally a pleasant surprise since I would have sworn I was in the 50s.  By this time, my stomach and throat were feeling the acid effects of the ibuprofen.  I kept it together until the end.  Once I crossed the finish line, I threw up a little (It happens!).  My official time is 49:37, top 10% in my age group, and top 18% overall.  I hit two out of my three goals which was just dandy for me.

Coming down Main Street

Pete and the kids were waiting at the finish.  We grabbed our freebies (Delicious flavored water, bagels, peanut butter crackers, bananas, watermelon, and juice bags) at the post-race party and met up with TPP and Leah again.  I missed the Freighbors, but saw them once I got home.  

To sum up, I had a great time and will definitely run this again.  The course, the crowds, and the organization make it worthwhile.  Moo!

Leah, TPP, and She Is Back 

Postscript:  I know I have been MIA in both my running and posting.  I have no excuses, but I hope you'll excuse me anyway.