Friday, April 6, 2012

Irish Potato Famine 5K

In 2008, my cousin Lizzie came to visit me for 3 weeks when Cameron and I lived in Boston.  We had a great time (ok, I did, hopefully she did too!!) and we went to NYC for a few days and inadvertently started an annual reunion with all of my college friends.
While we were in NYC, Lizzie, Cameron, Wendi (my wonderful maid of honor) and I did a little sight seeing.  We went to the Sex and the City house (which ironically is walking distance from where we live now) and wandered around downtown Manhattan.
While we were wandering, we stumbled upon the Irish Potato Famine memorial.  It was surprisingly a pretty cool memorial, although very random in downtown Manhattan.  Hadn't really thought about it in a few years until recently.
The Irish Potato Famine Memorial - picture taken in 2008 during Lizzie's visit
Cameron and I went for a run along the Hudson River a couple of months ago and partway through the run, I suddenly thought of the Irish Potato Famine memorial.  Cameron felt it was somewhere along our run, so we kept going and we found it!  I was pretty excited because it was such a unique monument.
Fast forward to this morning... Since we've signed up to run a 5K, Cam and I decided to run a 5K today.  I wanted to have a baseline time to work off of for the actual run we're doing. I got up, went to www.runningmap.com and mapped out a route along the Hudson River. I decided that I don't like running not along the river because of lights etc, so it was better for training purposes to walk to the river, then run, then walk back from the river.
Well... from the Charles St. entrance to the Hudson River Walkway, guess what is 2.5K away?

The Irish Potato Famine Memorial!

And so, the Irish Potato Famine 5K was born.
So at 11:45, Cameron and I left our apartment and set out to run a 5K.  I decided I didn't want to slow him down, so we decided to run separately.  He started a few minutes after me because he was messing with his phone, but eventually caught up and passed me.  My goal was to run the 5K in under 40 minutes, which to all you runners out there might sound like a long time, but I've never RUN a 5K, so I was basically just aiming to finish it without embarrassing myself too much.
I did it in 32 minutes. I am so proud of myself.  And clearly, I underestimated myself.  By a lot.
So now, for the PRoNE 5K, my goal is to run it in under 30 minutes.  To do that, I basically have to be able to run the entire thing.  I'm not going to lie, I walked for about... 6-7 minutes total, so if I can cut all of that walking out, I can do under 30 minutes.

On a sidenote, American Pie by Don McLean is both my favorite and most hated song to run to.  Its like 9 minutes long, so running for the whole thing means I've run almost a mile.  However, after every verse I think, "OK, here comes the slow verse...I'm almost finished" and then its not the slow ending, but some part of the song I completely forgot about.  AND then when you do get to the slow part, it drags on for ever and ever and ever.  But it takes up a significant portion of the run, so when it finally finishes, I know I've run a lot.

Have you ever underestimated yourself?  Do you have any music you love to run to?  Any you hate running to?

3 comments:

  1. I can't believe you run to American Pie. Cmon Nicole. It's such a downer song. And I'm pretty sure it slows down by the end. Shouldnt you want music that pumps you up? What about bohenian rhapsody (or any queen)? RHCP isnt bad (parallel universe is a great running song). Matt and Kim Cameras is good for running also.

    If you really want to get pumped up, you should try NFL films music, it'll make you feel like a badass gladiator. And want to give people concussions and stuff.

    Rap is usually good running music, espeicially if it has sirens and gun shots. Look out for Fatty and my single to drop "Icecream Scoopin' ". That'll be the greatest song to run to ever. For seriously.

    Also, thats pretty fricken impressive for someone who doesnt run that much. Keep up the good work, dude and keep us posted on your progress.

    Pain heals, chicks dig scars, and glory lasts forever.

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  2. Hicham El GuerroujApril 23, 2012 at 2:03 PM

    Steve - I like your running music suggestions. I'd like to add that you could also consider running to theme songs from Disney movies. Those get me going every time. Or maybe music from Broadway shows. That stuff is great! Icecream scoopin' is ok. The lyrics are brilliant, but the beat is nothing special... Typical rap music.. Also, I like that you ran the Irish Potato famine memorial 5k. You should consider running more routes that are irish-themed. Ireland is cool.

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