I ran the NYRR Cross Country Championships this AM in 26:48 for 5K. My last cross country race was 15 years ago as a senior in high school. Wow, writing that sentence makes me feel old :-) In those days, I could run 5K in 19 minutes easily and I thought that 7 minute miles were slow. Ahh, to be young again! The NYRR run is held at Van Cortland Park, a beautiful oasis in the Bronx and the race starts out deceptively flat. You run along the edge of the some soccer fields for the first mile and then enter into a forest where nothing but steep unrelenting hills await you. I did great on the flat part! The hills kinda killed me, but I’m happy to report that I fought off strong urges to walk up some of the nearly vertical hills around mile 2. I gotta thank Harish for pushing me through a grueling 9 mile workout last weekend which left me on the edge of death, but gave me the confidence to keep running today! Finally, near the end of the hills, I started to feel stronger and the next thing I knew we were out of the woods and circling around the starting line where the women’s race was getting ready to begin (had to pick it up there!). I turned the corner to the finish and started my sprint which was longer than I expected. I was about to pack it in and coast to the finish line when I saw that the clock was nearing 27. Gotta break 27, gotta break 27! Woo hoo! This may just be some residual endorphins talking, but I’m gonna break 20 minutes for 5K again someday.