{"id":945,"date":"2013-10-19T14:37:26","date_gmt":"2013-10-19T18:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/?p=945"},"modified":"2013-10-19T14:45:18","modified_gmt":"2013-10-19T18:45:18","slug":"placed-in-a-race-a-cupcake-run-on-my-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/2013\/10\/19\/placed-in-a-race-a-cupcake-run-on-my-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Placed in a Race &#8230; A Cupcake Run, on My Birthday!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I ran the first ever <a href=\"http:\/\/nyccupcakerun.com\" target=\"_blank\">NYC Cupcake Run<\/a> in Astoria Park in Queens, NY. I ran it in 21:13, placing second overall!<\/p>\n<p>(It was advertised as a 5K, meaning 3.1 miles, though I measured it more like 2.88 miles. No biggy! Just FYI.)<\/p>\n<p>Here are my stats from Garmin:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/connect.garmin.com:80\/activity\/embed\/392583437\" height=\"548\" width=\"465\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I was excited for this race. Put together by the same person who puts together the <a href=\"http:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/2013\/09\/21\/pizza-nom-nom-nom\/\">NYC Pizza Run<\/a>, this was hard to turn down because a) it happened on my birthday, making it a great birthday-cake substitute, and b) it was in Astoria, which is where I live.<\/p>\n<p>Jason, the organizer, knew I did a nice amount of tweeting about the event, and from those tweets he realized it was going to be my birthday. So with incredible kindness and forethought, when I checked in Jason handed me something special: A birthday hat! I wore it the entire race.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of the race, it started a few minutes after 11am on Shore Boulevard and ran at first on the shoreline sidewalk along Astoria Park. I started with the front group of runners and eventually was leading the pack for much of that first leg, coming into the first cupcake station in first place. I did not presume this to mean I was going to win &#8212; in fact, I took this to mean that I need to pace myself else I&#8217;ll burn out and definitely get passed later. Into the first cupcake station, I plowed into a very rich cupcake, demolishing it. I had wanted to pick up water here but I actually didn&#8217;t see any! Fortunately the cupcakes were moist with very creamy frosting, making them easy to cram. A second or so after I realized it had made it into my mouth, I took off, maintaining my first-place position.<\/p>\n<p>It was after halfway down Hoyt before the left turn that the other runner I was up against (John) overtook me. I had been slowed as I tried to consume the cupcake in my mouth and as I struggled to get it down without choking. I realized that maybe I should have spent more time swallowing the cupcake than just getting it into my mouth because maybe my time could have been better spent running. Oh well. John got quite a distance ahead of me and I was pretty certain I wouldn&#8217;t catch him, so I focused largely on maintaining my second-place position.<\/p>\n<p>Into the second cupcake station I saw John and told him not to let me beat him! I grabbed a water and I remember virtually nothing about this cupcake, only that I lost the cap to my water bottle in trying to figure out how to wet the cupcake in my mouth. John left before I did but I watched him get about the same distance as before away from me before I shot out of the station as I think as other runners were arriving. Without the cap on my water, I plugged my index finger into the bottle and ran like that, trying to gain something on John.<\/p>\n<p>I was going at a pretty decent clip. I&#8217;d had some caffeine earlier and I haven&#8217;t really been running, so I was a bit surprised that I was running at a decent clip and not really losing my breath. I hit the third cupcake station and engulfed a chocolate cupcake along with some kind of chocolate piece atop it. I don&#8217;t remember its making it into my mouth. However, there are going to be some great photos on the Facebook page for the event, for sure, as I understand I might have been one of the more rabid consumers of the race&#8217;s signature food item. I guess I was more competitive in this race than I realized!<\/p>\n<p>John was long gone and while the water did help the cupcake go down, it was going to be hard to catch him. It seemed to me I didn&#8217;t have anyone behind me but I didn&#8217;t check. I basically settled in to finishing second with my birthday cap on, knowing that a second-place finish would actually win me a prize. Just as I was turning onto the last leg, my friend Jono, whom I&#8217;d told about the race just that morning and who lives around the corner, started cheering my name! It was cool to see him show up to cheer me on. I shouted that I was in second &#8230; and fortunately I held onto that position as I crossed the finish in 21:13, making for nearly 7:40s without pausing the stopwatch at the cupcake stations. Such a cool happening on my birthday!<\/p>\n<p>Afterward I met several of the other runners and their friends and just hung out (hanged out?) in the park. People seemed happy and seemed to have a great time. There was no vomiting from what I could tell, and fewer people seemed to look &#8220;sick&#8221; compared to the NYC Pizza Run. I&#8217;d definitely recommend doing this run in 2014 &#8230; it&#8217;s for charity!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I ran the first ever NYC Cupcake Run in Astoria Park in Queens, NY. I ran it in 21:13, placing second overall! (It was advertised as a 5K, meaning 3.1 miles, though I measured it more like 2.88 miles. No biggy! Just FYI.) Here are my stats from Garmin: I was excited for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/2013\/10\/19\/placed-in-a-race-a-cupcake-run-on-my-birthday\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Placed in a Race &#8230; A Cupcake Run, on My Birthday!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,3],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5ks","category-races","tag-nyc-cupcake-run-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":949,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945\/revisions\/949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}