New York has some great run programs in their Parks.
This weekend Body Mechanics Orthopedic Massage participated in the the City Parks Foundation Run for the Parks. It was a fantastic day for a run and the weather was perfect! While at times you might see massage therapists giving massages at these events, Body Mechanics rarely does it as those are unpaid events where therapists are asked to volunteer in exchange for exposure. Fortunately, we have moved past that model so you are more likely to see us participating. Most of our therapists are trainers or athletes themselves and we certainly do not want to miss out on the fun! The City Parks Foundation Run for the Parks was on April 10th 2016. It is a 4 mile course through New York City’s beautiful Central Park.
The City Parks Foundation Run for the Parks is a platform for City Parks Foundation and its efforts to provide free sports and fitness programs for kids. Support of City Parks Foundation helps provide vital cultural, educational, and athletic opportunities for New Yorkers of all ages, and strengthen community connections to local parks and green spaces. They work in over 350 parks citywide, presenting a broad range of programs in an effort to promote healthy communities. Their philosophy is simple: thriving parks reflect vibrant communities.
If you click through to the link you can see some of the pictures from the event that NYRR put together. NYRR puts on a great program for all ages. 3,491 Men and 3,420 women turned out for this inclusive event that also has a shorter run for the ‘wee’ folk. I would highly recommend it as training run for either group. It was fantastic to see runners of all ages posing together with their well earned bibs.
I am a running coach but I do not get to compete as much as I would like. This event is extremely well-managed so it was a breeze. Picking up bibs was a snap thanks to the great organization of the event, and I simply met my running partner and her group of friends at the bag check. Since it is early in the season and New York decided to give us a cold and beautiful day, we had many layers. Many of us ended up with our bibs pinned to our legs as we knew mid-race we would start shedding cloths as the sun went up and our temperatures followed suit!
As with all races, the only rough part is the corral wait! Hurry up and wait is always the way! Though we arrived at 7:50 or so, the corrals were well organized, although we did have a bit of a walk given that we had planned a slow training run just to get some time on legs in preparation for later runs;)
All in all, this run was a perfect shake out. I think a lot of people ran to the event then ran home, but if your a new runner 4 miles is SOLID.
But best of all, my run friends introduced me to an amazing program called #22kill. So here is how it went down. We ran 4 miles and then at the finish line a big group of us dropped and did 22 push ups for veterans suicide awareness. AND IT WAS AWSOME.
What is #22kill?
#22kill is a global movement bridging the gap between veterans and civilians to build a community of support. 22KILL works to raise awareness of the suicide epidemic that is plaguing our country, and educate the public on mental health issues such as PTS.
We did 22 push ups as a group to honor those who serve and raise awareness, with a goal of getting to 22 million pushups. There were 6 of us so we contributed 132 push ups to the goal. If you want to get involved, you can go to their 22Kill page and see where to post your own vid or donate. It was a great way to finish off a race day.
The next NYRR run is the More/Shape women’s half marathon on April 17th! Have fun running!
