thursday night at the races

Went to the NYRR’s “Thursday Night at the Races” event last night at the Armory 200m indoor track in Washington Heights. I had never done it before and always wanted to. It’s a very nice facility. Slightly intimidating as there were lots of really great, college-age runners and not so many, er, more mediocre runners.

Like there were 130 men there (and maybe 50 women) and the mile event was divided up into six heats of about 20 each. I was in the last heat, the “everyone else” heat for people who would be running the mile in over 4:55. Came in about 5:40 and about halfway in my heat. Was overcome by a fit of coughing afterwards. Had forgotten how hard exertion can do that to one.

Felt better in the 800m, where I was in the second-to-last heat and led for most of the race. Felt really super to be leading the race as some inspirational music played … but then on the final curve these two guys behind me accelerated into the final turn and beat me by a half-step. Ack. I think I was about 2:30.

Also did the 2 mile event, in about 12 minutes. By this time a lot of the folks had left. There was a lot of standing around and I was there from 7pm to 10pm to run three races, plus even on an express A-train it’s a long trip from City Hall to Washington Heights. But it was fun even if I might not do it again.