The morning of the race, I had to drop Kristianna off at Columbia because she had class, and then go down to the race. While driving to Columbia, we kept noticing police car after police car on the Henry Hudson and the West Side Highway, many of which were parked near an exit. We thought this was strange. After dropping her off, I tried to get back onto West Side Highway going south, but it was blocked off by a police car. I proceeded to try and make my way south using various streets, for about 4 more exits, all of which were also blocked. Finally, in frustration, I tried making my way accross Manhatten to get to the FDR drive on the other side of town. I only had directions from the West Side Highway, but I figured I would figure it out.
When I finally got there, I found out why the police decided to block off the West Side Highway as soon as I got off. The Northbound of the FDR was also blocked off, because thousands of cyclists were participating in some sort of race. It must have been around all of Manhatten. Anyway, I did finally make it to Staten Island without too much trouble, but by the time I did, they blocked off the exit I was supposed to take because it was part of the race, and it was too close to race-time. So again, I had no directions, but again eventually figured it out. By the time I did however, it was already race time, and I still had to register, check my bag, stretch, etc. I think I wound up being the last person to start the race, with the next last person about 100 yards ahead of me. That was a new experience. But, all in all, I wound up catching up and passing several hundred people, and wound up finishing with a net pace time of 10:11. So, I almost broke the 10 minute mark. Perhaps next time I can.
Distance: 13.1 Miles, 21.1 Kilometers
Date/Time: Oct. 15, 2006, 9:40 am
Location: Staten Island, NYC
Weather: 44 deg., 63% hum., wind 3 mph
Overall Place: 3108
Gender Place: 2006
Age Place: 349
Finish Time: 2:20:53
Net Time: 2:13:40
Pace / Mile: 10:12
AG Time: 2:13:40
AG Gender Place: 2048
AG %: 44.3%
