Race Results
I promised I would revisit the Men's Health Urbanathlon after my friends and I ran the race in New York City, but a certain October Nor'easter delayed my posting. Seven days without power and my obligations at work threw my schedule off quite a bit. However, I did want to check back in, just in case anyone was dying to know how the race went.
My relay race partners and I arrived in Manhattan on Friday, the night before the race. We went out for a few beers that night and I jokingly said "what if we just slept in and didn't run the race tomorrow?" My friend, Jenn, gave me a death stare and then reminded me of the pricey registration fee and hotel room we were staying in, for the sole purpose of running this race. Okay, so we were going to run no matter what.
The alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. and we all dragged ourselves out of bed. We put on our fluorescent colored uniforms, making sure we layered up because that was the morning of the Nor'easter and it was already cold and starting to drizzle. We hopped on a subway train at Grand Central and quickly realized that we were sharing a car with quite a few other people that were participating in the Urbanathlon. It was good to hear their stories. Some people had already run the Chicago race two weeks before. Others had never run this particular event but had participated in Spartan races or Tough Mudder, which, quite frankly, sounded even worse!
We hopped off the train at Citi Field in Flushing Meadows and were greeted by a sea of people. The rain was starting to come down hard and we all hurried our way to the starting line. Since the three of us were on a relay team we had to separate and go to our respective hand off points along the 9.5 mile course. I was the last leg and had to stand in the rain for about an hour before I was able to run. Karen was the first leg and ended up doing the same thing waiting for me to finish the race.
When Jenn finished up her obstacle, which was a series of parallel bars and monkey bars, she handed off the timing chip to me and I took off. Well, I didn't really "take off", I started out slowly because after a hour of standing in the cold I needed my muscles to warm up. I jogged for a while until I reached my first obstacle. I had to run through a field of tires and then under cargo nets. I almost lost my hair tie, which would have been disastrous because by that point it was pouring and my loose hair would have been a wet, tangled mess by the time I finished. The next obstacle was at Arthur Ash Stadium. I had to climb the stairs at the same arena where the U.S. Open tennis tournament is held each year. The stairs were sopping wet and I had to hang on to the side rails for dear life at points to make sure I wouldn't fall and break my neck! On to the third obstacle, which was at Citi Field. We had to climb the stairs all the way to the top of the baseball stadium and then go up and down the steps of the top deck of seats. Again, incredibly treacherous but then came the coolest part -- I got to step on to the field and run the entire length of the warning track starting at home plate and running up the third baseline, across the outfield and then back down the first baseline. Awesome! I probably slowed down a bit just to take it all in and tell myself "you are actually running on the field." I was thrilled, but this photo snapped of me as I exited the stadium probably doesn't show it.
I was almost finished, but I had to get through one final obstacle. I had to jump over taxi cabs parked bumper to bumper, then I had to climb a cargo net up one side of a bus and then down the other side, (click here for a look) then I had to crawl under four rows of Jeeps and then scale a wall. Luckily, one of the race volunteers was willing to give me a boost!
My relay race partners and I arrived in Manhattan on Friday, the night before the race. We went out for a few beers that night and I jokingly said "what if we just slept in and didn't run the race tomorrow?" My friend, Jenn, gave me a death stare and then reminded me of the pricey registration fee and hotel room we were staying in, for the sole purpose of running this race. Okay, so we were going to run no matter what.
The alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. and we all dragged ourselves out of bed. We put on our fluorescent colored uniforms, making sure we layered up because that was the morning of the Nor'easter and it was already cold and starting to drizzle. We hopped on a subway train at Grand Central and quickly realized that we were sharing a car with quite a few other people that were participating in the Urbanathlon. It was good to hear their stories. Some people had already run the Chicago race two weeks before. Others had never run this particular event but had participated in Spartan races or Tough Mudder, which, quite frankly, sounded even worse!
We hopped off the train at Citi Field in Flushing Meadows and were greeted by a sea of people. The rain was starting to come down hard and we all hurried our way to the starting line. Since the three of us were on a relay team we had to separate and go to our respective hand off points along the 9.5 mile course. I was the last leg and had to stand in the rain for about an hour before I was able to run. Karen was the first leg and ended up doing the same thing waiting for me to finish the race.
When Jenn finished up her obstacle, which was a series of parallel bars and monkey bars, she handed off the timing chip to me and I took off. Well, I didn't really "take off", I started out slowly because after a hour of standing in the cold I needed my muscles to warm up. I jogged for a while until I reached my first obstacle. I had to run through a field of tires and then under cargo nets. I almost lost my hair tie, which would have been disastrous because by that point it was pouring and my loose hair would have been a wet, tangled mess by the time I finished. The next obstacle was at Arthur Ash Stadium. I had to climb the stairs at the same arena where the U.S. Open tennis tournament is held each year. The stairs were sopping wet and I had to hang on to the side rails for dear life at points to make sure I wouldn't fall and break my neck! On to the third obstacle, which was at Citi Field. We had to climb the stairs all the way to the top of the baseball stadium and then go up and down the steps of the top deck of seats. Again, incredibly treacherous but then came the coolest part -- I got to step on to the field and run the entire length of the warning track starting at home plate and running up the third baseline, across the outfield and then back down the first baseline. Awesome! I probably slowed down a bit just to take it all in and tell myself "you are actually running on the field." I was thrilled, but this photo snapped of me as I exited the stadium probably doesn't show it.
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| Told you we were wearing fluorescent uniforms! |
As I crossed the finish line, I realized I had just participated in the coolest race ever! It was exhilarating, challenging and tiring all at once and the girls and I have decided to do it again next year, but we will run the full course ourselves.
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