REAL Nike 10k Human Race Results

Race Length	Finishing Time	Average Pace	Overall Place	Gender Place (All Women)	Age Group Place (F20-24)
10k (~6.2 miles)	45:25	7:18/mile	124/3478	15/1815	2/?

Nike Human Race 10k Results

Finishing time: 45:25

I can't really determine any comparison data yet (how I did in relation to other runners) because Nike doesn't seem to have that capability on their website, but guess I'll keep checking back to see if they make any updates/improvements. The 10th female NYC race finisher (the race happened in cities worldwide) finished in 43-something, so I don't feel TOO badly about my time. I just don't think I like these shorter distances!

On another note, Nike did some interesting things regarding this race that I think shows the difference between a NYRR-sponsored race and a race sponsored by a specific company. The shirts that were distributed, for instance, were very good quality--made by Nike, obviously--but it turned out that the shirt acted as the race bib; therefore, every single person running the race looked identical. On one hand, this did spark a slight feeling of camaraderie, as it felt more like a giant team running together in a race rather than individuals trying to beat one another. On the other hand, a race is filled with all sorts of unique individuals, and the uniqueness (I feel) is always well portrayed by everyone's varying choices of running attire. This uniqueness was lost, however, since we were all wearing the same shirt.

Another point of interest is how often they had water posts: every mile! It seemed overkill to me, but then again, I'm the girl who ran the first 12 miles of her marathon without stopping at any water stations, so maybe I tend to operate with less hydration than most.

I think the post-race tents were well put together, particularly because Nike was going to provide live results right there--something every runner desires to see as quickly as possible after the race. However, I don't think they were well prepared to accommodate the full 5,000 participants. There was only one food station handing out bottled water, Vitamin Water, pretzels, and granola bars, and as it was arranged as a tent rather than a "gauntlet," there was major congestion as well as a lack of accessible supplies for all of the runners.

All in all, I don't think I much like running the 10k distance. Half marathons are more my style; I find them more enjoyable, at any rate. Still, 5k and 10k races are probably good for my pace training, so I'll try to treat them as that and nothing more. It gets tough, though, when I see runners zooming by me...!

Sweet Turnips w/Carrot Shavings & Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

• 1-2 turnips
• 1 large onion
• 1 large carrot
• sugar
• salt and pepper
• honey
• allspice
• cayenne pepper
• vegetable stock (~1/4 cup)

Cut turnip into finger-sized pieces. Steam for ~3 min.

Cut onion into rings. Caramelize in pan with salt/sugar/pepper to taste.

Make sauce: veggie stock, cornstarch (to thicken), honey, allspice, cayenne pepper, salt

Heat sauce on stove over low heat. Using a peeler, shave in carrot and boil sauce until thickened. Add turnip and onion and heat until warm.

ENJOY!

Snapshot Book Review: Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first half of this novel was written superbly. The tension between the 1940s story of ten-year-old Sarah, a Jewish French girl rounded up by the French police with her family in a little-spoken-of Nazi initiative and the 20th century story of Julia's investigation into the roundup (called Vel' d'Hiv') was well-balanced, with each increasing gradually in fervor to keep the reader properly intrigued with both as they each progressed in parallel. However, once the two stories finally coincided--Julia discovered her husband's family's link to the Vel' d'Hiv' in Sarah's story--it seemed that the book had reached its pinnacle. Julia's continued obsession with Sarah and finding her--and later her predecessor--dominated the remainder of the book, offering no suspense for the reader, who knew she would eventually find answers to her questions and was forced to wallow along with her in her misery over her failing marriage and the saddness she repeatedly professed feeling over her topic of research. At the end, Rosnay attempts to give the reader a sense of rebirth and reconcilliation, but the novel was so drawn out from midway on, it's just a relief to finally be finished--which is never a good way for a reader to feel.

Ultimately, the truest and most compelling character was Julia's daughter Zoe, who played an important but not dominating role throughout the novel as a sort of FOIL or mirror for the modern-day Sarah.

Rosnay proved herself to be a feeling, emotional, compelling writer. Hopefully with her next work, she'll have better editorial guidance to help her hone her material.

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Snapshot Book Review: The Flying Troutmans

The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book offers a wonderful glimpse of the genuine "family dynamic" between a childless aunt and her mentally ill sister's teenage son and adolescent daughter. The characters are quirky but so well fleshed-out that you as the reader cannot help feeling as much compassion for them as if they were real people.

Hattie lacks life direction and does a brilliant, unsentimental job of relaying her self-doubts to the reader. Logan struggles with his mother Min's sickness and his responsibility for his younger sister Thebes in his very fifteen-year-old way, and Thebes is such a lovably bizarre girl that one cannot help but laugh out loud at many of her antics.

Toews treats all of these characters with consistency despite their quirks and their development throughout the novel, a commendable feat for an author writing any story, never mind a story concerning a spontaneous road trip to find a mentally ill woman's estranged husband.

Readers in all walks of life are likely to appreciate different aspects of this book, but all equally so, and none less than I did. I hope to read more equally ipressive works by Toews, regardless of what the NY Times has to say. (Although I will admit the one point in the book that did irk me a bit was Hattie's complete disregard for money--and the lack of consequences for all the characters' frivilous spending. In the real world, people have to worry about money. But I blame Toews' editor; he/she should have caught that.

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