Last weekend, I signed up for the UAE Healthy Kidney 10K with two friends of mine - one of my roommates, who is a marathoning champion, and another friend who is a fitness-ing champion and is just starting to get hooked on running.

First of all, what a thrill it is to bring another friend into the weird world of running long distances, by yourself, early in the morning on the weekends while everyone else is still sleeping off their hangover and will be for quite some time!

Welcome, Nicole!

And sorry for stealing that photo from your facebook album.

And this one. Normal cats we are not.

Second of all, what a thrill it is to run another race for a great cause. The National Kidney Foundation is not a foundation I've supported in the past, but one thing I really enjoy about road races is that so many of them sponsor charitable causes. By signing up, you are not only doing your own health a favor, you are also helping to raise vital awareness and funds for non-profits in your area! Win-win-win-win. Too many wins? Or not enough?

This was my first 10K eva and I wasn't sure what to expect. This is what I found: a lot of people. Goodness gracious. Almost 8,000 of my nearest and dearest squeezed themselves into Central Park to run just over a lap. This was amazing and I'm so thrilled for the National Kidney Foundation that their event was so successful, however, it did make for some interesting race conditions.

I am all for men and women who are either getting back into fitness or getting into a fit lifestyle for the first time. love it love it love it. What I do not necessarily love, however, is when these people overestimate how fast they can complete a race and find themselves, and all their friends they signed up with, in my corral a.k.a. my territory. I seriously spent the first several miles moving laterally rather than forward trying to get around groups of - pardon my language - slow pokes. And in a 6 mile race, the first several miles is about half of the entire thang!

Oh well. Still glad there was such a tremendous turnout.

In terms of timing, I also didn't know what to expect. I'd casually run the 4 mile Run For Haiti last winter with Ellen, and a very casual 5K with Ellen and Nicole and a slew of other biddies for the awesome cause Energy Up! last spring (incidentally, I wore the same shirt that day as I did this day! Go Team Cougarz!), but other than that I've only run half marathons and the recent full marathon.

after our victory lap at the Race for Haiti! note the snow. not warm.

I ended up winning the race, so that was a nice surprise, although on the New York Road Runners website, they've misprinted my name so it appears that I am a Kenyan man. This is an enormous oversight and I'm working with their web administrator to correct it.

No but seriously, despite what I felt was a sort of "meh" time, I did place for my age group which is SICK. Of course, my age group is extremely slow, but what can you do? I chalked it up to the fact that 20-24 year olds likely skip training runs to go to happy hours. NOT that I ever do that, of course, but those other hooligan 20-24 year olds surely do.

...busted.

Anyway, all of the age-group placers names are listed on the NYRR website in conjunction with this race. That's right, my name is on the internet! And not even in a bad way!

This race was really a training run for my upcoming half marathon, the Brooklyn Half, also known as my first endurance event eva. Once again, I'm running on behalf of the American Cancer Society, support my fabulous team if you haven't already! Super psyched to return and hope to rock it!