Brooklyn and Bronchitis (a.k.a. ‘No Sleep till Brooklyn’)

Elizabeth A

First I must apologize for the lateness of this entry. As the title suggests, unbeknownst to me, I was about to come down with bronchitis when I ran Brooklyn. But more on that later…

For now, the race. For myself and several other Flyers who ran Boston (Lara, Heather, Jessica, Dave, among others) I had high hopes for achieving in Brooklyn some sort of vindication from Boston. Not that I wasn’t happy with my run in Boston. It’s just that when something out of your control prevents you from a specific time goal, it’s nice to have a backup plan to go for that time goal again. Having no intention of pulling a two-marathon spring, I decided that Brooklyn was the scene of my retaliation. A sub-1:29 was my goal.

Leading up to the race, I should have tapered more. Edit that – we (the Flyers in WBTC training program) – should have tapered more (i.e., Lara, Andrea K and Flyers Marathon Training Program coach Kari Smith) all discussed later. Nevertheless, I was pretty pumped as we set out on the Flyer bus race morning.

The Flyers bus to the start of the race was lovely (thanks, Richard B!!). Christine L, Adam H, Nina P and I sat together in the back, our pre-race jitters dampened by the soothing sounds of light rock (seriously, nothing gets you in a less race-y mood than “Careless Whisper” at 5am). We had a nice ride to the race, with plenty of space to relax, pin our bibs on, and in my case, listen to a little pre-race AC/DC to get psyched.

We arrived in Brooklyn right at the starting area a good hour pre-race, leaving plenty of time to check our bags, do some striders, use the port-a-johns and head to the corrals. I was joined in the corral by Andrea and Jess, which was great! Interestingly, next to me in our corral were three guys, one of whom I noted was wearing a bib number corresponding to corral 20. How he got into corral 2, I don’t know- but it was a prelude to later events. In addition to these guys, there were many late arrivals with bib numbers corresponding to the first two corrals who missed the cutoff time. All of them were ushered to the back of the race – which was so far back (due to the insane number of participants) we couldn’t even see it from where we were.

The race started promptly at 7am, at which time it had warmed up to a nice 60 degrees. The course was new and, while some didn’t like it, I thought it great. We started on a gentle downhill as we went down Washington Ave and took a right on Flatbush. We made a nice little loop on Flatbush, which allowed me to get a glimpse of the elites as they passed on my left, and then give a shout-out to Nina P as I ran down Flatbush in the other direction and into Prospect Park. The Park itself is a tough course, and fairly hilly, but having not run it that often, I loved the fact that I had no idea what was coming. Thus it wasn’t until I was almost at the top of the big hill, and saw Brian H. (dressed, of course, as a wiener), that I started to fade. Here I must confess that I got a little miffed at Brian for not acknowledging me with a “Go Elizabeth!” or even “Go Flyers” (instead he shouted “Go Team for Kids” – thanks Brian). I forgave him five seconds later, however, when he shouted “you’re almost at the top, after this it’s all downhill!”

True to Brian’s word, it was all either downhill or flat after that. After a nice, long (!) downhill we exited the park and spilled out onto Ocean Parkway. From there it was six flat (and, OK, maybe a bit boring) miles out to Coney Island. My own boredom and dead legs began to get me down until I saw Ed F (who has been battling an injury and was running his first post-injury race). Seeing Ed was the pick-up I needed to keep pushing further, even making the occasional attempt to pass some Urban Athletics or City Coach girls here and there.

The race ended on the boardwalk, to the sounds of the Beastie Boys. I must admit, I had hoped for a 1:28 finish (having run a 1:29:51 in the NYC Half in spring, with Boston training still in my legs). Alas, it was not meant to be. My dead legs from hard workouts that week, coupled with what was soon-to-be bronchitis left me a bit more fatigued than I’d hoped. But I managed a 1:31:30, right behind Glenn W who had just run a big half-marathon PR (!!), with Jess R in hot pursuit at 1:31:39 (also PR-ing) and Colleen R right behind us.  There were many fantastic Flyer finish times including quite a few PRs!

It was a great showing for the Flyer women, including the Flyers Veteran Women who grabbed 4th place and the Flyers Senior Veteran Women who took 2nd place, and I was happy to discover that Colleen and I were 8th and 6th in our age group – or so we thought at the time.

We were soon joined by other Flyer friends and set off to the beach for a much-needed ice bath. Having cooled off our legs, we then headed over to Nathan’s for some necessary recovery fuel (hey – hot dogs are a Zone-approved mix of carbs and protein!) and on to Ruby’s for some more post-race carbs (beer!).

With Lara K on the Beach

I took a pass on the post-race Cyclone ride (given the hot dog and my cold, I worried it could turn into a pretty ugly picture – literally), but several Flyers (e.g., Nina, Lara, Christine L) were undeterred, with awesome photos to show for it.

Flyers Brave the Cyclone at Coney Island

Instead, Anne H and I took the subway home together, dozing off after all the excitement on the semi-long ride home. I woke up the next day with a fever and severe cough, which has lasted about a week. Pretty ironic for a doctor of Infectious Diseases! On my return to the living, I heard that Colleen and I had been upgraded to 6th and 4th for our age group, respectively, as one woman cut the course and another was a guy wearing a woman’s bib.  Click here to read about it!! It was an exciting conclusion to an exciting day all-around.

I can’t wait to do it again next year – after a proper taper and lots of vitamin C!

-Elizabeth A