JP Morgan Challange....aka "dodging a minefield run"

I did a company run tonight in Central Park in the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge, which is a 3.5 mile run around the top portion of Central Park.

I wanted to race it cuz Wednesdays are my speed days now. So I got in a good 2 mile warmup, showed up the start line with 15 mins to spare, only to find 10,000 people in front of me. YIKES!

So racing this race went completely out of the window. I figure it would be slow, but at least consistent? WRONG! There were people evenly scattered across the road walking, making us runners run like we were running through a minefield. I figured after a mile of this it would open up. NOPE! Mile 2....still people walking.

I mean, there were people walking 10 abreast. It was utter mayhem!

It took me 10 mins to walk to the start line, 10 mins to run the first mile, and 9 mins to run miles 2 and 3. I wasn't until the final half mile that there were large clear sections to go all out.

I finished with a 32:44, or a 9:21 pace.

Whatever, I still got in 5.5 miles for the night.

And as a milestone, I actually drove INTO Manhattan for the first time. It actually wasn't all that bad.