A weekend of Pride: Pride Run 2011 and a Flybarre class

This past Friday marked an historic occasion in New York - the passing of the same-sex marriage bill. Unrelated to this, I had signed up to run the Front Runners New York Lesbian and Gay Pride Run a month ago.

Source: NYTimes

Some of you may know of my recent running-related injury. I was diagnosed with ilitotibial band syndrome and asked to refrain from running and undergo physical therapy once a week.

I bought a foam roller. I tried to be diligent about stretching regularly. And most importantly, I refrained from running. I (along with my physical therapist) decided that four weeks is a decent amount of time to allow my knee to recuperate. The next race would be the Pride Run and, despite not knowing how my knee would fare at that time, I signed up for it.

So glad that I did! Because of the bill there has been an air of jubilation this weekend in New York city, with the passing of the bill this Friday, the Pride Run on Saturday and the annual Pride parade earlier this afternoon on Sunday. I knew the race would be extra special this year because of the heightened spirits so I was really excited to be a part of it.

Look at the sea of people in the corrals!

The race was sold out, and you could tell as much as you entered Central Park on 102nd street on the east side. There were so many people, and there was so much visible color. It seemed as if everyone had donned their brightest t-shirts. I myself was wearing hot pink! I saw quite a few people in rainbow-colored socks and leg warmers. There were a few women festively head-dressed in mini wedding veils. One man was wearing simply a pair of shorts and had colored streamers hanging off his wrists! I'm kicking myself for not having taken a picture!

I opted not to race this run, especially since it was my first run since completing my course of physical therapy. I started off slowly and began to pick up my pace after the first mile. It was then when the humidity hit me and I developed a side cramp, which often happens when I am dehydrated. Crap. I tried to re-hydrate frequently but also ended up taking a few brief stops to walk. My time for the 5-mile race was 51:46, which corresponded to a pace of 10:22/mile. Nothing stellar, but nonetheless, I was excited to be part of the race and glad I was there. Best part? My knee behaved! Physical therapy works! Who knew? ;-)

I did lots of this! Source: Foamroller.org.uk

I don't want to jinx it as it's possible that my knee may misbehave at my next race. But I was happy that I was able to run the 5 miles without irritating it.

This morning I woke up with sore legs but I had committed to take the free Flybarre class that Melissa had organized at Flywheel Sports. The annual Pride parade was taking place at that same time in Flywheel Sports' vicinity and luckliy I gave myself enough time to navigate through the crowds to reach my destination on time.

Pride parade 2011, Source: NYTimes

Flybarre is an awesome barre class that I have written about before. This was my second time taking the class and even with a different instructor (Kolina), I loved it. There are a lot of short and fast movements, especially involving the arms. The 'dynamic' arm series was killer. Lots of short punching and jabbing movements holding 3lb hand weights, and such intricate choreography.

Source: Wellandgoodnyc.com

This class uses a resistance band looped around the barre for concurrent abdominal and arm work. One move involved us lying on the floor, head facing the barre with our arms holding onto the ends of the resistance band. We then had to raise our hips up and tap the barre with our toes while pulling the resistance band and then lower our legs to our point of control and then repeat! Wow! Holy sore abs! I love using the resistance band and I think this is one of the reasons I enjoy this class so much. The music was pretty amazing also. A mash-up of Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" and Blink 182's "All The Small Things"? You wouldn't think it would work, but it does! Loved this class.

I also loved seeing the other bloggers who were in attendance including Cameo, Sara, Kristene and Ashley. I'm so glad to have been able to meet so many NYC bloggers in the past few months. They are such a wonderful group of smart, funny, and talented women and I feel so proud to be part of this awesome community.

Thanks, Melissa and Flywheel Sports! I hope to be back!

Question:
Does your city have parades? What is your favorite annual city parade? Mine would have to be the Village Halloween parade!