* It wasn’t a race. I simply finished first.
* I finished before Lance Armstrong, but I didn’t “beat” him as it wasn’t race.
This evening I ran with Lance Armstrong and maybe 100 or so people for about 4 miles on Lance’s 40th birthday as part of his “Fight Like Hell” The Run concept announced over Twitter. His tweet originally read:
Hey NYC! – how bout a “Fight Like Hell” Twitter Run? Meet at Nike Town (57th St) @ 6pm this Sunday. 4-5 miles thru the city. #fightlikehell
I heard about it from the frontpage of Yahoo! yesterday, cancelled my evening plans, and decided this was an opportunity of a lifetime to run with someone who does slightly inspire my marathoning. Lance’s first marathon was a sub-3:00, which is something I hope to do by year’s end. There was a particular significance for me to be able to have this run as part of my training. The tweet was later updated with a new starting place (under the globe in Columbus Circle), and there is where I waited in the cool temps from 5:30pm until Lance showed at 7:22pm.
Below are my Garmin stats. Keep in mind that I forgot to turn off my Garmin at the end, probably for about a minute and a half. If you view my run in the Garmin Player, you’ll probably see where I forgot to turn it off. I suspect in my last .79 I was going around a 6:25 pace.
The opportunity was so cool. The sucky thing was that Lance showed up an hour and twenty minutes late, but I held out because I wanted this story. We were accompanied by one “Security” cyclist leading the pack (a group of VIPs along with Lance started at Niketown on 57th and met us in Columbus Circle as they exited Central Park), and also with us were about 4 cyclists in the bright Livestrong yellow, dragging skiffs of advertisting for http://faceuptoit.livestrong.org. In Columbus Circle was had a humorous police escort whom we were supposed to follow, but no one listened to him and we started taking off down W. 60th St. The road in this area has uneven pavement so I was careful to watch my footing but I was also trying to figure out, “Where’s Lance?” I hadn’t seen him yet! We turned left only 9th Ave. and went down a block or so before turning right down a steep hill, past 10th Ave., and eventually making it to the West Side Highway, where a large group of people were waiting to cheer us on. By this time I’d figured out where he was–basically leading the pack but with a lot of people keeping pace with him. Even taking photos while running!
It was manageable chaos. We were barrelling through intersections when we had red; we were trying to keep runners from entering the actual highway rather than running on the bike path; we were trying to avoid collisions with signs and other pedestrians using the bike path. It was dark out and tricky but a blast. (Why did some of the runners and cyclists yell “Pull!” when we went through pedestrian crosswalks?)
It was on the bike path along the West Side Highway that I suddenly realized I had primo real estate for this run. I was running right beside Lance Armstrong! For some time it was myself, a female friend he was talking to, then Lance. I chose not to say anything (I didn’t really have anything to say anyway), and just focused on soaking in the experience. Soon I realized though that my pace was faster than theirs, so I just accepted that and decided to unleash my pace. I ended up getting in front of Lance and the others, running just behind and alongside the Livestrong cyclists. I chatted briefly with a 3:11 NYC marathoner about his strategy for running it that fast (“Run the course” and “weekly speed training” were what he advised) then I soon pulled in front of him! I must say I’m not THAT great of a runner, but I had to take in this experience of leading the pack.
I was at the head of the pack or very near it toward the end of our time on the West Side Highway before we turned left onto W. 26th St. From there we took off up W. 26th St., eventually made our way to 25th St., then back to 26th St. where we passed a long line of ASSSSCAT audience members at the UCB Theatre. I wished I knew someone to say hi to in that line, being toward the head of this group of night runners! From there I confirmed we’d be finishing on 5th Ave., and I kept up my pace as best I could in that long straightaway.
For that last leg, it was basically just myself and another runner and the Livestrong cyclists. The other runner was usually a few strides ahead of me, then I would pass him at an intersection when he was slow and I would find my way across. He’d then overtake me. Around Broadway I said to him, “Don’t let me beat you!” but by the time we hit 5th Ave., we turned left against traffic to find where the finish would be. I made it to W. 27th St. where there was a truck with baggage … and the run was done. I got there first. I’ve never been in a position like that before. And I beat Lance Armstrong. I guess I get to say that now, though with lots of asterisks and qualifications.
I had thought the truck was going to give us shirts and waters (just an instinctual thing to expect something after a race) but I learned quickly that wasn’t the case when I put together the bags and the VIP runners. I then saw a horde of people at a building entrance just behind me: It was Lance finishing. What was going on?, I wondered, and I went over. He was signing a shirt but quickly he moved indoors and that was that. “Fight Like Hell” The Run was done.
I sprinted to the subway station nearby (I was soooo loose and springy!) when I realized my Garmin was still on. When I looked over the stats, I was pretty happy. I’ve been faster in my life, but I got up there in speed pretty easily. I managed my third mile in 6:25, after having run a 6:31 and before that a 6:48. And consider that this morning I did a 10-mile run at a 6:53 pace! I haven’t done a 2-run day in quite some time, and when I did last, I didn’t pull off something so speedy on BOTH runs.
So there you have it. Thanks, Lance and Livestrong. That was cool and very exciting.