Race for the Park Race report

It was a beautiful morning to run. Sunny, no wind, a little bit chilly (in 40s?) but once the running started, it was perfect! The crowd was over 8000 people (as announced by NYRR), but results show 5300 finishers. Definitely a large race.
The race started on east side around 68th. That means Cat Hill was in firs half mile or so. Good start, but no national anthem, which I and several runners around me noticed. Felt OK, Cat Hill didn't seem so bad when you do it as you are hitting your stride. My Garmin couldn't find the satellites, because (I had forgotten to turn on the GPS part until the race started. And then I was running, and it couldn't lock on. So I don't have any real splits.)  I ran through first mile at 8:40, (clock time) about an 8 minute mile. Mile 2 was around the reservoir, down the hill and across 102d street transverse. Almost all downhill. Clock time was 16:30, so it was about a 7:40 mile. Mile 3 was from 102 to about 83rd on the west side. The highest point of the park is actually at about 84th St on west side, so this mile was significantly uphill. I know I came through Mile 3 on the clock at about 24:40, so it was another consistent 8 minute mile or so. Very upsetting that I didn't get my Garmin going and don't have any splits -- even on my old Timex I would get splits (my splits are what I recall, so probably not right). I also realized after race I could have manually hit "lap" on the Garmin, but didn't think about that because I never have had to do before. Ran home, mile 4 mostly downhill, to finish around the lake and the 72d Transverse. Garmin time: 31:20.

All in all, a good run on a great morning to run.