What is 4502, 2131, 205 & 2542?

Over all place, Gender place, Age place & Age-graded gender place for my race today in Central Park. My very first race. It was 4 miles in Central Park. And I finished! (see proud photo of self!) Which puts me into an age-graded performance level of 39.8% Which makes sense, 'cuz I feel like I'm only using about 40% of my body! There were 4732 finishers, 2305 of them women, which makes me faster than 230 people(if my math is correct, anyway), 174 of them women--223 women in my age bracket. (Notice I'm not mentioning that most of them were much faster than me!)



I decided sometime last fall that I was going to get in shape and start running. I ran for about a month, then quit when I moved to New York in November. I started back again in March, but haven't been too regular, running only once or twice a week, and never more than 2 1/2 miles or so.

But here it was race day. I was nervous, excited, and anxious. I had no idea where to pin my number, how to tie my chip onto my shoe. There were about 7,000 runners there. Completely overwhelming. I am so grateful to my friend Michelle, an experienced runner, who met me at the park and encouraged and ran with me. And I'm a slow runner. (Due mostly, I think, to my miniature sized legs and the fact that I'm not very athletic.) So she ran slow. (And walked with me when I needed to walk.)

And the best part? People on the sidelines clapping and cheering. Add that to the fact that only about 3-5% of the population runs and I'm feeling pretty proud today. Already thinking about my next race and how I can improve. First thing I'll do is run in the fall or spring when there isn't 94% humidity.