My First Sober 10K: The Great Cow Harbor 10K

Today I ran the Great Cow Harbor 10K in Northport, New York located on the beautiful North Shore of Long Island. I'm from the North Shore so I suppose I may be bias, but I am convinced it is the most beautiful place in the world in the fall. Today it is a crisp 60 degrees and sunny. The temperature was in the low 50s when I started the race this morning.

the course

Many people have been talking about how great this Great Cow Harbor course is, and I admit I was a little skeptical. Why is it so incredible? Is it really the best course out here? After completing the race, I can honestly agree with these runners. It is awesome. The hills are tough but manageable and I gained a lot of time by charging down the descents. Good thing someone has been working on her hill training.

I left my house early this morning because I thought I needed to catch some shuttle bus before 7:45am. Then I realized I could park behind the Dunkin Donuts and I ended up at the race way to early. The more time I have to wander around, the more I find myself fretting about the bathroom. What can I say? I always have to pee. After two trips to the porta-potty, I was all lined up and waiting for the race to start when I panicked and got back in line. I almost missed my wave start waiting for some primadonna (who was in the last freaking wave!) to finish up in there. It's a porta-potty. There are no mirrors. It doesn't take that long to pee. I am a superfast pee-er and I was able to run back to my wave, toss my long-sleeved shirt, and start on time.

The Great Cow Harbor 10K is very much supported by the Northport community. It reminded me of the Garden City Turkey Trot because most of the town seemed to be outside of their homes and cheering for the runners. The people of Northport are awesome because they set up their own water stations! I brought along a 20 ounce bottle, but definitely relied on the kindness of strangers to supplement my supplies. Speaking of that water bottle - I like to ditch it after mile 4 to free up my hands. I don't like when people litter the streets, especially in Oyster Bay, so I chose to be courteous to a neighboring village and asked a spectator to dispose of my bottle for me. He graciously agreed to, and my fellow runners commented on how conscientious I was to this. But if you think about it, this is not Central Park and the New York Road Runners have not hired a crew to clean up after us. Very nice people live on these roads and they don't want their streets covered in garbage.

My outfit was a big hit, especially my sunglasses. I don't think my love of red, white, and blue is a secret after recent posts. Today I wore my white running skirt, blue C9 sport top, and my patriotic tri-colored Knockaround sunglasses. Good things happen to you when you wear red, white, and blue.

I was the only person awake this morning so this
is the only picture I have of my spiffy outfit.

* This statement is now untrue because IslandPhotos are ready!

I'm a little confused about my finish time. The website says to take the time you see on the overhead clock and subtract your wave delay. That means I should subtract five minutes. But then I checked my results on the board and my time included the five minutes. Does that mean they displayed the total time and it is my responsibility to find my own net time? Will the final results on the website be net results? I ask because I definitely PR'd today (I wasn't drunk this time, I had to!) and I want to know how much better I did than in the past.

The post-race festival was pretty neat. I wish I had had some people to hang out with and someone to meet me with a sweatshirt. Although I didn't stay for the awards ceremony, I did hang around for a while. I got a leg massage from the kind people at Northport Physical Therapy & Sports Performance and I grabbed some snacks from the refreshment table. I love pretzels after a hard run. I would've gotten a beer but I didn't bring my ID and I signed up late so my age isn't on my race bib. Sucks for me.

I'll update you with my final time once I figure it out.