Cow Harbor 10k

My friend Jeannette and I did the Cow Harbor 10k yesterday in Northport, LI. This is one of the most difficult and competitive courses in the area and a race I've done every year since 2006. I decided to treat it as a training run this time because I'm focusing on the marathon and I knew with all the longer runs I've been doing, I probably wouldn't be as fast as I was last year when I finished in 41:45. Also, the knee is still an issue and I'm getting over a cold that just won't give up.

The first mile includes a very steep climb, so I told myself to just start easy and find my pace. Training run, remember? Sounds like a good plan but in a race, it's so easy to get carried away. My first mile was a 6:37. What happened to training run? Eh, you know what? The weather's perfect, I haven't raced since June and I'm feeling pretty good. Maybe I can do this, I thought. But my mind kept going back and forth with every mile. I went from wanting to give it all I have to remembering that I'm dealing with a knee problem, a cold, and that I have the marathon to think about, which is exactly 5 weeks from today. I also found myself being more cautious than usual on the downhills because I didn't trust my knee as much as I normally do, but I also felt stronger on the climbs than I thought I would.

Then I started passing other women and wondering if I could place top three in my age group. Cow Harbor is one of those races everyone knows, even non-runners, and it draws a large field of national talent. As an example, Ryan Hall broke the course record and won in 2006 in 28:55. This year, the female winner was Katie McGregor in 33:12. At this race, I think I'll always be an age grouper! I was 10th in my age group in '06, 5th in '07 and 7th in '08. Despite finishing 54 seconds slower than I did last year, I placed 3rd yesterday!

I was pretty excited to finally receive a Cow Harbor award. I hung out, patiently waiting for them to get through all the top-10 awards and a raffle drawing that went on forever. And then everyone just starts leaving! Turns out they just mail out the age group awards because they "don't have time" to hand them out in person. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait just a little longer. What a bummer!