New York Road Runners Queens 10k Recap

I shared my apprehensions with you about this race last week—I had barely moved my body in 10 days and even worse I didn’t run not even one training mile during that time. It was the first time I have entered a race without even at least running a little the week before.

The days before the race had the entire New York Running community in an absolute frenzy. Every group that I was in was watching the weather like a hawk. The night before there was a 100% chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms at 8am which was race start time. Now I am no stranger to horrible race day weather, My first half was done in what I’d like to call the equivalent to a monsoon and the Rock N Roll Half in DC was a nonstop down pour. I wasn’t too worried about this one since it was only 6.2 miles—it would still suck but for half the time.

I decided to wear one of the tech tees that I purchased at the AirBnB Brooklyn Half Party and my brand new CWX compression pants that was a gift from a Shoebuy event I attended last week. My favorite Nike Dri Fit hat and my Garmin and I was ready to go.

Around 8pm Saturday night we all got word that they had to delay the race time by one hour. One hour extra sleep for me! Considering the race was a 2 hour commute away, I was happy for the extra snooze time.

When I woke up that morning I checked the weather immediately—to my shock (and joy) the forecast for 8am was cloudy—not one drop of rain. Say what?! YES.

The commute was long. Not gonna lie. I had to take one bus and three trains to get to Flushing Meadows Park in Queens. Plus I’d never been there before so I left extra early to navigate my way around.

The train ride was long but by the time I got to the second train there were plenty of other runners headed to Queens so I knew my chances of getting lost dropped dramatically. I’d just be following the herd of runners to the start line.

While it wasn’t raining at all (woohoo!) the temperature and humidity made things uncomfortable just simply standing at the start line. I was happy that I hydrated with 100oz of water the day before when I was at a conference the day before.

When we started running I felt pretty good, and I was shocked because I hadn’t run in 10 days. I turned on my Spotify Running app and it worked perfectly—realizing that soca music was the choice of the day—every time I slowed down they put on another soca song that got me moving again!

It was crazy hot and humid, I was drenched within minutes of starting. The path never really got crowded and the scenery was little to none. We really ran around the park—the coolest part was at the very end when we came up close and personal with the unisphere. All the runner stopped to take a selfie and some just stopped in general – we back of the packers are just there to have a good time. 🙂

Once I crossed the finish line I was happy, a) because it was over and b) because I was so ready to go home. I had a 2 hour (SUNDAY) commute ahead of me so I didn’t stay for any of the fun that was set up.

Three things I learned from the NYRR Queens 10k

Try not to dress according to the weather forecast (things can change!) , I dressed in long tights and I regretted it the minute I started running
Despite the forecast, the weather could STILL change at the very last minute. Have a backup outfit planned.
You can still run a race—even if you missed a week of training.