Joy, Cari, Sprad, and I have completed the 2nd Annual Men’s Health Urbanathlon. The race was much better than last year and, with the addition of Danielle and Katie, we had a great weekend in NYC..
Unlike last year — where it was pouring down rain and 50 degrees — the weather was beautiful on Saturday morning. Sunny, a slight breeze, and the temperature was close to 70 degrees. It still didn’t make waking up at 6am anymore fun. This year, the teachers (Joy and Cari) did a much better job making sure we got to the race on time. Right when we arrived in Central Park, it was apparent the race was much larger than last year. Whereas last year there were about 450 runners, this year there was close to 800. They had a cheesy fake drill sergeant leading an intense warmup that Sprad and I neglected to participate in and just watched. We lined up in the race queue and, after a national anthem and some words from the hosts, started the race..
I hadn’t really trained hard for this race. While I was in overall better shape than last year’s race, I hadn’t trained much so I felt less prepared. Sprad and I started at a decent pace, weaving and running past people in Central Park and onto the west coast of Manhattan. The first part of race’s are always hard for me, especially when they’re in the morning.. I think my body is still waking up and not used to the activity that early. The first leg of the race was 2.86 miles with no obstacles. We ran it in 21:57, which is a bit slow for me but we were being cautious.
The first obstacles we encountered were the Jersey Barricades and Culvet Craw on Pier 84. The barricades existed last year and were really easy. They mixed it up this year, however, and put one barricade followed by one crawl and another barricade followed by another crawl. This broke up your rhythm of just jumping over the barricades and was more challenging. When we were crawling through the tubes, they were really muddy. While this wasn’t a big deal, it was annoying getting your hands and clothes all dirty. Either way, it was still a breeze and Sprad and I continued on.
The next leg of the race was 3.9 miles. It was split up by the Marine Hurdles and Scaffolding Maze at Pier 54. The Scaffolding Maze was new this year, and while great in theory, failed in execution. There was a long line of people waiting to get on the Scaffolding Maze. This really disrupted the rhythm of the race, as racers had to slow down and wait impatiently. The obstacle itself was challenging and fun. Hopefully next year they find a better way to implement this without people waiting. The marine hurdles, which are 2×4’s raised to 5 feet that you have to jump over, existed last year and are fairly challenging. After the obstacles and another few miles, we arrived at 7 World Trade Center in 30:56.
Up until this point, I felt really good. I had a minor calf cramp, but I wasn’t exhausted and was actually starting to run faster. I was dreading the stairs this year, especially after I about died on them last year. The entire race up until the stairs, I kept reminding myself to keep a steady pace and not overdo it since the worst had yet to come. Sprad and I both agreed it was stupid to even attempt to run the stairs, and immediately upon entering we started walking them. And up we went. 52 stories. Sometimes I would skip a few steps in an attempt to speed up the pace, sometimes I’d slow it down. The most important thing for me was keeping my head up and taking long, deep breaths. Last year I buried my head while attempting to hurry up the steps, and the lack of oxygen and closed interior really made me lightheaded and dizzy. At one point I started getting dizzy and had to remind myself to pick my head up and breathe. It made a world of a difference from last year. I didn’t stop the entire 52 stories, and when I made it up to the top I actually caught my breath and was able to enjoy the gorgeous view atop the building. The stair climb down was easier, but not as easy as you may think. Your natural instinct is to sprint down the stairs, since running down stairs is easy, right? But when your legs are exhausted and you’re out of breath, it can be difficult to run quickly. Sprad and I hauled it down the last half of stairs, jumping down two steps at a time.. although the entire time I was so scared I was going to roll an ankle or fall. We came out of the stairs motivated that we didn’t stop and felt good, and continued running on our way. Our stair time this year was 19:28, as opposed to 22:34 last year.
The last leg of the race is an easy 1.25 miles that is finished off by the Taxi Hurdle and Rope Wall. This is one area Men’s Health really improved upon. They created a really neat, energetic finish atmosphere. They put two taxis together, front bumper to front bumper, and you had to jump over however you saw fit. Many people did the dramatic movie slide across the hood (and busted on the ground as well!) but I decided to play it easy and just jump over. The rope wall was wider than last year and decorated with some really cool graffiti. Sprad and I both jumped straight up, ignoring the rope, and pulled ourselves over. It amazed me how many people tried to use the rope and would fall down. It’s only 8 feet! Sprad and I finished the race together, with a fist pump at the finish line, at a time of 1:19:17. We finished 131 overall, and 19 minutes shy of the winner.
After waiting for Cari and Joy to finish (and helping them over the wall), we met up with Danielle and Katie and walked a mile to the Festival at the South Street Seaport. It was really refreshing being outside right by the water, and we grabbed some free gear from the sponsors, free breakfast, and (the best) free beer! The festival overall was pretty lame though, and we headed back to the hotel after a few hours.
After a great power nap (lasting almost 3 hours), we spent the rest of the night out in the city. We walked through Times Square, ate dinner and had drinks at The View restaurant in the Marriot Marquis, and met up with Atul and Alex and went to several neat bars in the city. It made the trip much better having the race on Saturday morning, as we were able to really enjoy ourselves the rest of the day Saturday and Sunday.
I had a fantastic time running in the Urbanathlon and I’m looking forward to doing it again next year. I would have really enjoyed running in the Chicago race this year, but there’s something fun about going back to NYC each year. While there are improvements they can make to the obstacles in the race, it’s still a unique and fun challenge and an exciting weekend I will look forward to every year.
