2012 running goals, or something like that

So as I said in my 2011 year-in-review post, I’d address 2012 later.  Well, it’s later 🙂

So here’s what I got on the horizon so far this year…

• Boston Marathon (4/16/12)  Obviously this is the biggie as of now.  Time goals?  I don’t know as of now.  At the very least, I want to finish-yes, I want the jacket 😛  I do want to enjoy the experience-and not be in misery for the  last 10K like I was in NYCM.  Ideally, I would run a respectable time, as I am in the need for marathon redemption 🙂  I do have to take into consideration that my training will be 3 weeks shorter, therefore a PR may not be realistic.  But if everything were to go right?  Obviously I would like to requalify…but would shoot for sub-3:40.  None of this 3:35 nonsense, that’s crazy talk!  I should have known better, the B.A.A. gives us upper submasters the extra 5 minutes for a reason.  I guess I’ll re-assess goals as we get closer to Patriots’ Day!
• NYC Half-Marathon (3/18/12)  After being a lottery loser last year, they actually let me in this year!  Yes I know what the price tag is, and it would cost just as much, if not more, to travel to a half.  For me, I felt it was worth it for several reasons.  It’s perfectly timed as a Boston tune-up.  Last time I ran it was the inaugural race in 2006, and I was not happy with my race at all.  I’d love to get redemption from that one!  This is also the last chance to run a NYCMQ half time under the “old” standards-1:37 or faster (not sure if I’d run NYC or not, but it’d be nice to get the qualifier just once.)  Not sure if I’ll be quite there just yet, but who knows what can happen in 2 months?  (or maybe I can run 1:37:51 to beat my 2006 time by 10 minutes…hehe.)  Finally, the course is changed a little bit, and I’m liking it!!  Start in the lower part of the park, counterclockwise loop in the park (if we have to do the full 6 thats the direction I prefer,) one less mile in the park, finish now near the Seaport.  Should be fun!!  (and will be amusing to see the St. Patrick’s Day drunks leaving the bars around the same time that I’m heading for the start.)
  

  the new course!

So those are the only 2 races definitely on the schedule as of now.  What else would I like to see happen this year?

• A 10K PR.  It should not be that my 10K splits in both Philly halfs I’ve raced (46:29 in 2009, 46:38 in 2011) are faster than my actual 10K PR (47:06, set in 2008.)  Maybe try for one in the Mini 10K in June?  The thing is that one is hit or miss in terms of weather. 
• Sub-7 minute pace short race?  (e.g., 3-miler, 5K, maybe 4-miler?)  I’d have to get back into the shape I was in last summer…then find a flat course in good weather.  Maybe sometime in the fall?

As for the fall-have no clue what I will be doing, race-wise.  Let’s see how the spring plays out…

 

my first F35-39 race (staten island half report)

So even though I mentioned the possiblity of racing the Staten Island Half previously, I was sorta quiet about it since I wasn’t sure what my strategy was gonna be.  I had signed up just to have the opportunity to use it as a long run, or marathon-pace run if need be, as it falls on the weekend between my two 20-milers.  But after missing my goal in Philly, Coach T and I talked about the possiblity of racing this one, and he did give me the blessing to go for it.  I ran this race only once before-5 years ago, but just as a training run.  I distinctly remembered 1 hill in the beginning, and a biggie at mile 8, but was described by many as a PR course.  The weather forecast was a bit warmer than ideal, but considering I ran great races in the summer heat, I didn’t let that psych me out one bit.

So that Sunday (4 weeks out from the big day, to be exact), I did the routine that most likely would happen on marathon day too.  Woke up way too early.  Breakfast and coffee (Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice coffee FTW!  Perfect since I ran out of Peppermint and almost out of Gingerbread and those won’t be back in the stores for while.)  Put the race outfit on…went with the Adioses again for the shoes, and actually tried out a different racing outfit-Flyers singlet (I usually wear the fitted top) and my Lululemon Speed shorts (instead of my short fitted Nike shorts.)  As the shorts have gel pockets, I wouldn’t need a pocket in my top…so I wanted to try out racing in this combo.  (is it me, or do I use this half to try out new shorts?  Last time it was the infamous “naked shorts”…)

And I left my place around 5:30ish, and barely caught the 1 train at Times Square.  Yep, even though NYRR suggested we take the 7:30 ferry at the latest, I felt that would be cutting it too close.  I took the ferry to a Staten island Yankee game this past summer, and it was almost a half hour late.  If the 7:30 was that late, I’d be missing the start.  So I decided to take the 6:30 ferry…I’d rather get to Staten Island early and zone out rather than be in the terminal on the Manhattan side and stress out.  And given that the ferry terminal had plenty of runners, I wasn’t alone in that assessment (of course, some may have been frontloading with a few extra miles.)  I strategically positioned myself near the ferry entrance, and when the doors opened, was able to get a seat near where the exit would be on the SI side and a window seat too.  I think this ferry left maybe 5 minutes late…not too bad, I just listened to my race morning playlist and enjoyed the views during the trip.  And even after getting to SI, the time seemed to go by quickly…found a place to sit and chill out (beautiful morning to sit outside by the water!)…chatted with Flyer and non-Flyer friends, before I knew it, was time to head to the corrals.

just out of the starting gate-i'm to the right of purple chick

So I don’t know who was on announcing duty today, but I actually missed Mary Wittenberg.  This guy was going on and on about the weather and how it was so hot…oh yeah and the comment about how the ChampionChip is “as useful as a rotary phone” (if thats the case, can I get my $35 back that I paid for it way back when?)  I even heard the guy was making fun of people who were late because they were delayed by the ferry…yeah there was some drama there.  Not only was the 7:30 ferry late, but it couldn’t hold everyone waiting.  There was an additional one added around 8-ish, I believe?  But still there were definitely a lot of people who were going to miss the start.  (wow-am I glad I decided to go on the early ferry!)  Even though they did say they were going to delay the start, Mr. Garmin said I started at 8:32 (original start time was 8:30) so they couldn’t have waited that long…

So we headed out of the stadium and onto the streets…mile 1 was uphill but I felt in control.  When I saw my first mile was 7:23 I was pleased…but there was the possibility I may have gone out too fast.  Oh yeah, we were running on unshaded roads on a warm and sunny day, and remember that supposed “flat and fast” course?

Um yeah.  I remembered there was gonna be a hill at mile 8, but I definitely did not remember some of the others!

I just kept going…at around mile 3 I saw Lam speed past me…apparently he got caught on one of the late ferries and had to weave his way through the field (but no worries, since he still PR’ed!  yay!)  I said to him to “go get it.”  As for me, it’s possible my fast start worked against me, as the next 3 miles were 7:34, 7:44, 7:42.  Uh oh…could I be in trouble?  Somewhere in mile 4 I heard someone cheering for me…I looked quickly and saw AP, our Master Blaster…since he’s our resident Staten Islander, I figured he’d either be running or spectating. 🙂

Mile 5 dropped to 7:55…yeah that was up another hill.  But still.  I could have very easily thrown in the towel but just make the rest of the race a marathon-pace run but I chose to fight.  Being that this was an out-and-back, what goes up must come down, right?  And we were nearing the part of the course that I really liked, as the turnaround as around a mile away I saw people coming back on the other side…then it was my turn to hit the turnaround…I heard people cheering for me and if I couldn’t acknowledge you, I’m sorry-was too focused on the task at hand but know it was appreciated! 

just passed my teammate with a mile or 2 to go...

Then mile 8 brought the hill.  The one that 5 years ago I said was “a bigger bitch than I am.”  Seemed like it lasted almost the entire mile!  “Come on, Flyer!” said a guy wearing a NYC Triathlon top who was trying to encourage me to stick with him.  Relief when we hit the top.  At 8:04, this was by far the slowest mile of the race, and my only mile over 8 minutes.  Even the downhill right afterwards…didn’t feel like a reward right then and there, took about 100-200 meters to recover from the hill.  Mile 9 went through Fort Wadsworth…boy it’s gonna look quite different in 4 weeks, just crawling with runners 🙂  Come to think of it-I’m sure there was a view of the Verrazano Bridge somewhere in these last coupla miles but I didn’t even notice!  Exited the Fort and went back into town…saw AP again with his son, and he was taking pictures…I’m sure I didn’t look too happy at that point though 😛

So up til mile 10 or 11, was just trying to maintain pace.  By this point there were people to pace off of…NYC Tri guy, and a couple of Dashing Whippets (I just hoped I wasn’t being too annoying, my breathing was getting loud by that point…working hard!)  In the beginning, everyone who had started late and weaving their way through the field…didn’t know who was running what pace!  By now everyone had pretty much settled in.  Memories from the backstretch…me saying “Shut up!” to those saying “Almost there!” and having other runners say “thank you!”…the very welcome sprinklers at the water stations and elsewhere…the DJ playing “Rain Over Me” and me thinking “ooh rain would be nice right now” 

finishing stretch!

After the bridge at the beginning of mile 12, I thought the hills were over…ugh I guess I forgot about one more!  But then I really think it’s downhill from here?  And passing by the mile 12 marker, I could hear the announcer for the finishers but I forced myself to not look in that direction, just crank it for the last mile.  Headed down the ramp into the stadium with about a half-mile to go and I knew it was just a straight shot to the finish.  And the clock was saying 1:40:xx…which was just alright by me!! 🙂

Final time-1:40:27, 7:40 pace.  My 3rd fastest half ever (only 2 faster were in Philly) and a soft “hilly course” PR, i guess 🙂 

The deets:

Split	Time	Elevation Gain	Elevation Loss
1	7:23.8	17	10
2	7:34.7	32	51
3	7:44.3	14	14
4	7:42.1	45	14
5	7:55.2	68	12
6	7:26.2	0	94
7	7:42.6	13	22
8	8:04.8	105	0
9	7:30.6	0	70
10	7:32.5	13	32
11	7:44.0	0	5
12	7:57.3	61	43
13	7:25.0	39	43
13.1	0:43.6 (6:38 pace)	0	0

As you can see, the elevation changes tell the story of the splits!

And I was 12th in my new age group…my highest age-group placing ever in a NYRR race!!  Maybe there is something to this whole 35-39 age group 🙂  The Flyer women took 3rd and I was the 3rd Flyer female so I got one of these:

And yeah, I know the high placing and finishing 3rd among the Flyer women was only because a lot of the fasties did Grete’s the previous weekend…so a little bittersweet.  I’ll take it though!  Hadn’t gotten one of those team medals in a long time (few years?)…we have so many fast women on the team now, the times I finish top 5 are few and far between!

So even though I would have loved to have run 1:38-1:39…or better if that was where the day took me, I’m still happy with this race.  I could have easily thrown in the towel and “tempoed” it but I fought to the finish.  Unlike Brooklyn, I wasn’t roadkill in the last 5 miles 🙂 And besides, I do remember that it was only a few years ago when I was frustrated at being stuck at a 1:47-1:48 plateau for the half, I was trying to break 1:45 but coming up short…now I can knock on the door of 1:40 in non-ideal conditions on a hilly course?  And of course, eye on the prize and I like that this race predicts a 3:31 marathon…

Next?  Now it’s time to get in that last big week and the last 20 miler, then taper down and stay uninjured before the big day in 4 weeks!

third time not a charm (rock ‘n’ roll philly half report)

Before the longer story, I’ll cut to the chase now…wasn’t my best (2nd best, actually), but thankfully not my worst.

So even though I hadn’t really tapered for this thing, I was trying to stay hopeful that I could bust out a good one.  The room number in the hotel I was staying at was a sign…room number 724-and isn’t a 1:37 half 7:24 pace? (1:37 is the open standard for a qualifying time for NYCM/NYC Half…the latter being a little more important to me as I’d like to run that one again and the only way I will get in is to qualify on time!)  So did the usuals the day before the race…hit up the expo (spotted Kara Goucher at the Nutrilite booth-we passed on getting an autograph as the line was too long) and dinner at Buca di Beppo (almost a reservation snafu, but got it sorted out!)  Then time to put out the clothes for the next morning (including folding over my bib so the “Rock ‘n’ Roll Philly Half” wasn’t showing, that bib was way too damn big!)  And had to decide on shoes…was debating between the Launches and the Adioses, but decided to take a chance with the latter, paired with my black CEP compression socks (the hot pink ones would have clashed 🙂 )

Got up, had my usual bagel w/ white chocolate PB and coffee, got dressed, hydrated, and everything, walked over to the start (a mile from our hotel)…and when I stepped outside, was greeted by some very nice racing weather…great, guess I have no excuses 😛  After checking bags, Flyer GW (my traveling companion) went to do a warmup, I had to take care of other business and stretch a little bit more before heading to the corrals.  Headed to corral 2 this year…moving on up in the world!!   Was joined shortly by GW and JJ, another Flyer.  JJ said he was just gonna run this at marathon pace so I thought “OK guess I need to stay ahead of him.”  National Anthem, then the first corral and elites were off.  Then time to move us up…and I didn’t go anywhere near the timing mats until we were allowed to go-learned from my mistakes at the Corporate Challenge 😉

So another clean start, this staggered start system that Philly has used the last coupla years has worked well.  Settled in right away.  GW pulled ahead, as did JJ…now I didn’t know if this meant that I was going slower than hoped, or that just like last year’s Scotland 10K, he wasn’t really gonna stick to marathon pace 😛  Anyway, the mile 1 split sort of put the concerns to rest.

And the next 3 miles wove through Center City.  I was keeping consistent, and actually wasn’t too far off from my opening mile splits last time I ran this race…but today, was feeling more like work than it did 2 years ago.  Not that I went out too fast, but just that I was gonna have to fight for this one.  There was a guy who was pacing with me through this part…unfortunately lost him a little after mile 4.  Not surprising, he said he wanted to run 1:30-1:35…

So after passing by the start/finish was a little bit of new territory for me.  The last 2 times I ran this race, we ran out on MLK Drive and back on Kelly Drive to the finish.  Starting last year, the course was reversed.  OK, may not be a bad thing, means that hill at mile 13 will actually be a downhill this time? 🙂  But dammit, a sidestitch crept up in mile 5.  It went away after I grabbed water, but resurfaced during mile 7.  After that, I knew I was gonna have to take fluids more than I normally have in a half.  And I was feeling sort of under-fueled too…my gel boost in mile 8 could not have come soon enough.

And mile 8 was my first (and thankfully only) mile in the 7:40s…I thought “oh no you don’t.”  I’m not sure what I could salvage with this race, but at least I want to avoid feeling like roadkill like I had in Brooklyn.  Where’s the Falls Bridge, and the turn to the finish?  Ah there it is, mile 9.  One more mile, and I can try and pick it up to the finish.  Which I did for mile 11, but 12 and 13 were struggles-though I was still passing people!  And there was something with the camber of the road that was aggrevating my right side.  Finally, I could see the mile 13 marker but not the finish!  Oh wait…they got rid of one hill and swap it for something shorter and steeper.  But once I crested that, the finish was in sight and gave it all I had…oh damn won’t be getting under 1:40 on the clock…haul ass and you can finish under 1:39…finished…1:38:58.  Glad that’s over!

Got my medal and a picture and gathered up whatever goodies they have after the finish.  Found GW and JJ afterwards…both had PRed.  In fact, seemed like everyone I knew who ran that day (lotsa local NYC team peeps made the trip out) had PRed…ugh, what could have been.  Thank god for the MGD 64 beer tent to numb things a little.

So I have mixed emotions about my race.  On one hand, I’m definitely glad to get under 1:40 again, shows that 2009’s race was not a fluke.  And hey, if I was still able to run under 1:40 on tired legs, what could I have done had I been tapered?  Yeah…definitely wonder what could have been if I was able to race it.  But have to take it for what it is-a tuneup for NYCM.  (And good learning with regards to hydration and fueling and how much I need.)  Maybe I’ll give it a 2nd go in Staten Island, maybe I’ll just use that as a pace run-we’ll see how I’m feeling in 3 weeks.  In terms of race predictions, McMillan sez 3:28:43…and I usually add 10 minutes for the NYCM hills…so 3:38.  Not quite where I want to be…guess I have my work cut out for me in the next 7 weeks! 🙂

week 11 wrap-up

7 weeks to go…less than 50 days out…time flies.

Well this was an interesting week of sorts.  Highlighted by “Bibgate“.  Unfortunately, I got that news the day of my track workout, and it definitely threw me-I was “off” the entire time.  I was supposed to hit 5:00 per 1200 and was way off…

Interval	Distance	Time	Pace
1	1200m	5:06.37	6:50.88
2	1200m	5:06.12	6:50.54
3	1200m	5:12.80	6:59.50

Not sure if I was still feeling my MP run from Sunday, or if it was Bibgate getting to me, but I wasn’t happy with this one at all.  Especially the last one-I was definitely hauling, and the heart rate data showed it, why was it so slow?

Tried to put it behind me for Thursday, 2 consecutive tempo loops of the Harlem Hill loop (approx 1.41 miles).  My 2 loops were 10:56/10:35 (7:43/7:28 pace)…improvement from the last time I did this workout in May, when I ran 10:56/10:57?  Was the first really cool night in awhile (very windy too!)-felt a little underdressed in short sleeves and almost could have been glove weather!!

As for today’s half, there is a full report to come, but I will say for now that the popular opinion on the poll was correct (1:37-1:39.)  There was no PR, but still glad to get under 1:40 as it was definitely tougher going than I expected.  Of course, I knew it was gonna be a challenge going in as I was not tapered…

guess my half-marathon time, 2011 edition

It’s back!!  Less than 2 weeks to go til the Rock ‘n’ Roll Philly Half, time for the guessing game to start.

Realistic guesses please!  To help with that, here’s a little data…

Best half ever was from this same race in 2009-1:37:36.  2nd best was 1:42:20 in the 2008 race!

In terms of predictors for now…my Club Champs 5M time predicts 1:40:25. Keeping in mind that was a hilly course and on a hot/humid day and I wasn’t really tapered…with the flat course, and being a little further along in training, I’m hoping I can better that prediction a little bit.

In comparison, 2008’s Club Champs 5M time predicted 1:46:30 and I ran 1:42:20 that year…and in 2009 the Club Champs 5M time predicted 1:42:41 and I actually ran 1:37:36.

Orrrrr…if you want to go by paces per mile-in 2008 I ran 7:38 pace at Club Champs and 7:48 pace in the half.  2009, ran 7:21 pace at Club Champs and 7:27 pace in the half.  2011, I ran 7:12 pace at Club Champs and ??? pace for the half…?

As always, one of the choices I feel is very unrealistic, but I felt I had to put it in anyway.

My goals for this race…would like a PR, definitely want under 1:40 to prove that time 2 years ago was not a fluke (is it me, or am I having to prove that a lot of times aren’t flukes…)  And wouldn’t mind hitting the NYCM/NYC Half qualifying standard of 1:37 or better (provided that does not get changed)

Vote early. But do not vote often-I once again fixed it so certain people won’t try and stuff the ballot box…you all know who you are!

Thanks for playing!

from the archives: my first half-marathon

Well apparently, August 29 is a milestone date of sorts. In 2010, this is when I move to a new apartment, a new neighborhood. Back in 2004, that was the date of my first half-marathon ever-the Manhattan Half-Marathon. As I found this race report somewhere, I figured it’s only fitting to share this one with you all (while I’m busy with, uh, manual labor of sorts.) Enjoy-and see ya on the flip side!

Here it was-my first half marathon. The distance was a little intimidating, especially considering my previous longest race was a 10K, which was half as long. My mileage leading up to the half was pretty good. I had lots of encouragement from my teammates that I could do this (one of them even thought I could do it in 1:45-sheesh!!)

But I was still nervous-I had 2 things working against me: 1-the remnants of a tight right hip that I incurred in the mile race 2 weeks earlier-it was still bugging me in the race the week before, though the pain had substantially subsided, and I truly felt like I had gained my speed back. 2-as per tradition, this race, no matter if it was scheduled in the beginning or end of August, would be a hot, humid day (the weather report was 81 degrees, and was humid as hell.) The upside was that after a horrible course design last year that included 3 repeats of Harlem Hill, 2 repeats of Cat Hill and the course moving in the harder counterclockwise direction, the course this year was just 2 clockwise loops of the park-meaning the easier of the 2 Harlem Hills (but still tough), and Cat Hill being downhill.

So I get to the start bright and early (7 am start!) Was absolutely packed-probably about 6000 people there. You knew it was gonna be a full house when you see race bib numbers in the 10000’s. Lined up near the back of the 8 minute group in hopes that it would prevent me from going out too fast. Saw a teammate of mine, CC, at the start and we chatted a few minutes before the starting gun went off, trying to get each other psyched up for the race. The starting gun goes off but due to the volume of runners, we didn’t actually reach the starting line for about another 3 minutes. So trying to be cautious, ran the first mile at an easy pace. Wound up leaving CC behind, as she going slow due to nursing an injury but saw another teammate of mine, TB, midway through mile 1, and we just started chatting and just decided to team up and pace each other, as we’re pretty similar in terms of pace. My first mile was 9:14, which I thought was a little slow but figured it was much safer than going out too fast, and stepped it up a bit. We were joined by another teammate, NG, during mile 2, and we pretty much finished the first loop of the park through mile 7 together.

During mile 8, I started to fall behind TB and NG-this was where my inexperience with the distance was coming into play, as well as the heat and humidity taking its toll. But I gelled at the water stop right after the mile 8 marker-that gave me a boost. I was still lagging, but then I was joined by another teammate friend, DC, who wasn’t running in the race-she tried to keep me encouraged and entertained up until mile 11-and then I knew while I was tiring, I had 2.1 easy miles in front of me. Mile 12 was Cat Hill downhill, did it only 3 seconds slower than the first time around. Caught up with TB during mile 13 and we pretty much stuck together til the finish line.

Then came that last .1 mile. Unfortunately it was uphill. But at that point, it didn’t matter. The announcer was saying “finishers, stay to the right” and I could see the finish line and I think to myself “Holy sh*t, I’m FINISHING this thing!!” Even put my arms up victory-style!! Crossed the finish line in 1:52:55 (8:37 pace.)

I netted out like this:
1st 6 miles-9:14/8:42/8:22/8:45/8:24/8:14
2nd 6 miles-8:41/8:29/8:42/8:59/8:46/8:17
Last 1.1 miles-8:26/0:55

I’m very happy with my time  considering the course, conditions and my first attempt at the distance. Also-I know I lost a minute or 2 due to the water/Gatorade stations-they were pretty slow especially during the second loop, plus due to the weather and distance, instead of taking a gulp of water on the fly, I took my time and drank the entire cup-probably 6 times in total. But it greatly helped to have my teammates and I pacing each other-all about teamwork baby!!!

I was glad that my one big summer goal was fulfilled!! (And surprisingly, I was a LOT less banged up after this than I was after the mile race-not sore, however was very slow a few days afterwards. But got my groove back later in the week.) No more halfs for me this year-looking forward to running some fast fall-weather times in some shorter races, but looking forward to tackling the half-marathons in the other boroughs next year!! (cooler days and flatter courses-I’ll get that 1:45 yet…)

yeah i looked like an idiot here.

finito.

holiday, celebrate…

If we took a holiday (oh yeah, oh yeah)
Took some time to celebrate (c’mon, let’s celebrate)
Just one day out of life (just one day!)
It would be, it would be so nice!

And the long Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer has come and gone.  (Well thanks to the wonder of carryover vacation days, I’ve extended mine another day…)  Though it wasn’t as jam-packed and memorable as last year’s, it was still quite lovely all the same.  Spent a lot of time outdoors…be it either running, lounging out in Central Park with friends, or just wandering the west side path…

As part of my long run Saturday (11 miles), I checked out the newly opened portion of the west side path that goes from around west 84th to 93rd.  Good to not have to detour through Riverside Park anymore, but warning-it is very narrow during that portion, best to go single file!!

Sunday consisted of a lonnggggg picnic in the park….good food, friends and drink (sangria in picnic-sized boxes rule!)  Then yesterday consisted of a run, brunch and some girl talk with TB who was back from Europe (but is gonna come home for good in a coupla months-much earlier than expected!!  yeah!) and lounging out on the west side path…and eventually taking advantage of one of the best Monday evening dinner deals-$10 fajitas at Cilantro!!  (plus happy-hour special margaritas!)

And though I raced on Memorial Day last year, I’m so glad I skipped it this year.  Besides other reasons, I heard reports that it was a rough day.  And besides, I’d rather look forward to and concentrate on having a good race at the Mini 10K.  I do have a time goal in mind…not sure if I want to say what it is just yet…

And on the topic of races, I could help but notice some of the recent dissention on NYRR’s Facebook page-specifically about the Brooklyn half and what it *didn’t* offer.  That NYRR should be ashamed of themselves for not giving out finisher’s medals, and that “seasoned runners don’t care about the medals but newbies do, and not getting a medal cheapens our effort” or something like that.  Hmmm, I seem to remember I didn’t receive a medal for my first half-marathon.  The Manhattan Half in 2004, anyone remember that one?  Late August, 2 loops of Central Park, hot as hell, not anyone’s first choice for a debut half-marathon (yeah I don’t know what I was thinking.)  But I finished, and just seeing my name in the results as a half-marathon finisher was good enough for me.  I agree with this comment someone else made: “You really think you wasted your time? You ran 13.1 miles. Do you really believe that your accomplishment is tarnished because you didn’t receive a medal?”  Hell, I’ve run almost 20 half-marathons and I can probably count on one hand the number of times I received a finishers medal for the race.  Guess it is what you make of it.  Stepping down off my soapbox now…

hello brooklyn 2.0

I know I said 4 years ago that Brooklyn would “never be my borough”  Well, I can admit when I’ve been wrong, because the Brooklyn Half course version 2.0…well as I said in my previous post-reverse the course=reverse the curse?  It did indeed.  My 3rd time running this race, 1st time on the new course-I finally had both a race performance and time I was happy with.  (Not to mention a great post-race party!)

So with all intentions of getting to sleep early on Friday nite…ah that didn’t happen-no not because of friends IMing me 😉 …but more because I was sucked in by the Yanks-Mutts game, dammit!  But I did eventually get to sleep and actually did wake up an hour before my alarm and went back to sleep…alarm went off at 4 am and I actually got up without a problem…went through the normal pre-race routine and then headed out the door to catch the Flyers bus…listening to some cool songs on the iPod on the walk over (yes, “Tik Tok” was one of them…lol)

The bus was a coupla minutes late getting to the UWS, but still made it to Prospect Park with plenty of time to spare and with no directional issues or getting lost.  Found the baggage trucks to drop our mini-plastic bags off (yep, had to sorta pack light this time…) and then me and Flyer EG wanted to head to the start in order to get a good starting position in our respective corrals…though there were no signs indicating where the start was!!  After originally walking in the wrong direction and back-tracking, we saw lotsa people walking south and figured that was where the start was…saw the corrals in the distance so that was right 🙂  So by the time we got there, the corrals were almost empty…hmmm so much for everyone having to be lined up by 6:30 (yeah, the “checklist” says 6:50 now, but I could swear it originally said 6:30!)  And honestly, the corrals were not really being policed…like I walked right in to the yellow corral and no one checked my number.  And I bet my teammate who was a coupla corrals back could have lined up with me and nobody would check.  Saw and chatted with Moz for a few minutes (and he would go on to run a great race!) and Maria was lined up with me-she was just doing this as a long run to practice for kicking some Vermont City a$$ next weekend 🙂  And of course, other familiar faces…other Flyers, AU from the Rez Dogs…was like a little party in the corrals 🙂  But before we could race, we had to, of course, listen to all the speeches…Mary Wittenberg, Brooklyn president Marty Markowitz…and oh yeah the singing of the National Anthem (with the lyrics flubbed again!!)  And a coupla minutes later “on your marks” and the sound of the horn…about 50 secs later, cross the start and hoping for the best today…

Part I-Prospect Park, Loop 1
Mile 1-7:54
Mile 2-7:58
Mile 3-7:39

So I didn’t want to get too caught up in the downhill first mile…but I figured if I do that under 8, I’m off to a good start.  My teammates DM and JJ were running with me for the first few minutes and DM even joked that I was gonna pace them…but they both eventually pulled ahead and I let them go-didn’t want to take any chances with the hills early on.  So I was happy with both the mile 1 and the mile 2 split, as mile 2 had the evil hill and I just wanted to get that mile under 8.  But unfortunately in mile 2, I saw my teammate DC and Lam (who was supposed to be pacing her to a 1:30) by the side of the road and it looked like there was something wrong with her.  I yelled out “are you guys OK?” and Lam said they were fine…though eventually I found out that DC had to take a DNF 😦  Anyway, got through the evil hill and knew I’d only have to deal with it one more time, and enjoyed the downhill reward…things were looking very good so far.  One loop down, one to go.  And let me say-I was very pleasantly surprised by the amount of people out in Prospect Park cheering-it was a great boost, and it really shows the support for this race, that so many people were out before 8 am spectating!!  So to all the spectators and cheerleaders-thank you! 🙂

Part II-Prospect Park, Loop 2
Mile 4-7:40
Mile 5-8:06
Mile 6-8:03
Mile 7-7:32

So even though the temps were pretty decent (around 60) and it was cloudy, the humidity was deadly and I felt it.  After 2 miles that were over 8 minutes, I decided to not wait til mile 8 and take a gel now.  Luckily, I had brought 2 gels with me in case I lost one and it may have been good fortune that I did…I felt with the humidity being what it was, it may have to be a 2-gel day.  And I felt better in mile 7 (as the mile split showed!)   May have been because of the downhill or because I knew I was a mile away from exiting the park!!  We were starting to lap slower runners and I will say that the crowd control was excellent-the course marshalls really did a good job in keeping those starting their second loop and those exiting the park separate.  Mile 7 was on the road heading out of the park and I was through 7 miles in 54:52 (7:50 pace)…ok, awesome.  My plan was to get through Prospect Park under 8’s, then pick up the pace on Ocean Parkway…and so far I was right on track.  Maybe I can get under 7:45s?

(Note-even though it may look like my pacing in the park was all over the place, the splits were very terrain-specific.  And yes, that long run I did with 4 trips up the evil Prospect Park hill did help!)

Part III-Ocean Parkway
Mile 8-7:44
Mile 9-7:43
Mile 10-7:50
Mile 11-7:48
Mile 12-7:49

Ah crap, I forgot about that ramp to get onto Ocean Parkway.  And just when I thought I was done with hills! 🙂  But still was nothing compared to the “evil hill” 😉  Coach DC from Urban was out riding his bike and cheered me on.  Off the ramp and onto the Parkway…one that we don’t have to pay tolls on…just run down 😛  Just 5 and change miles of open road ahead of me til I get to the boardwalk.  Even though a lot of the street signs had letters on them, I tried to avoid looking at them and playing the “alphabet game” (sorta “counting down” how many to go)…just run.

Cruising down the (Ocean) Parkway

Even though Prospect Park was filled with spectators, Ocean Parkway was actually pretty quiet.  Though it was good to see some familiar faces from Manhattan cheering.  RB (aka Dr. Evil) was around mile 8 taking pictures…yes, I actually smiled for the camera 🙂  Not too long after, I saw LG and GA from Urban, and that was actually a nice surprise to see them.  And LG told me later that I “really looked comfortable”…ah looks are deceiving!!  Or I can’t resist smiling for my fans.

Yeah, Ocean Parkway was tougher than I thought!!  It actually felt slightly uphill…funny, I thought going the other direction felt slightly uphill too!!  Or maybe it was the elements getting to me, or maybe the fact this was the longest race I’ve done in a long time.  But I just kept going.  Barring a disaster, I had 1:45, now it’s just how far under can I go.  Took my 2nd gel and did some quick math at the 10-mile mark (1:18:09)…hmmm unless I can signficantly pick it up for the last 5K, 7:45s may be out.  Let’s see what happens…well after the legs could only crank out a 7:48 and 7:49 for miles 11 and 12, I thought, well maybe I can beat my 2008 Philly Distance Run time of 1:42:20…it’s gonna be close though!!

Part IV-Coney Island Boardwalk to the finish line
Mile 13-7:52
last .1 mile-:49

At the 12-mile mark, I could start to feel the finish line calling my name.  One more mile.  Less than 10 minutes.  I can do that.  Finally the turn onto Surf Ave and then another left, up the ramp, onto the boardwalk…heard “Nothing But a Good Time” by Poison playing and that actually made me smile.

The boardwalk.  2 years in a row, it tore up my calves and left me in pain for a good part of the race.  This year, none of that (of course it helped there was less than a mile on the boardwalk and I had an almost 12-mile warmup and it was warmer out!)  I did feel the boards moving (though I tried to stay on the part where the boards were straight instead of slanted for as long as I could)…normally I can really gun those last 1.1 miles, but I think I had to step off the accelerator a little bit to prevent from wiping out.  And even though the crowds were great here (thx AP for cheering!), the scenery was very nice…this mile just seemed to last forever!!  I think my legs were tired of the boardwalk 😛  Finally, the Mile 13 sign and I can see the finish line!!  Did the best I could for a finishing kick while staying vertical at the same time…finished!!

Final time-1:42:27 (7:49 pace)-just missing my 2008 PDR time (I blame the boardwalk…thats where I left those 7-8 seconds! 😛 )  But much more important-3rd best half time ever AND first time breaking 1:45 on a hilly course.  I’ve only done it on a flat course (PDR) or net downhill (the old Vegas course)  And to do it on a course that caused me such grief and pain in the past?  Revenge is sweet!

Part V-The Post-Race Party

Everybody was in really good spirits afterwards and ready to have some Coney Island fun.  First off, me and Flyers EG, CN, KM and JR headed over to the ocean…while a couple of them had a desire to go swimming, I just wanted to dip my legs in the Atlantic to give them a nice ice bath 🙂  While it was eventually deemed that the water was too cold for swimming, it felt absolutely awesome on my legs.

Beer Island!!

But the best was yet to come-a lot of Flyers (and other teams, I saw) congregated at Beer Island to toast ourselves and our races.  And I saw they had Honey Moon (the summer seasonal Blue Moon variety) on draft…score!!!  Just a lot of fun kicking back, having a few beers by the beach in the morning with a bunch of friends…love it!!  A few of us were saying how we may need to make this an ending point for some long runs this summer 🙂  Anyway, once done drinking, a few of us wanted to partake in some Coney Island cuisine…originally wanted some Totonno’s pizza but the wait there was gonna be ridiculous.  No worries…next best thing-Nathan’s hot dogs!!  After some dogs and fries, we were all ready to make the trek back to Manhattan and ready for some well-deserved naps.

As for the race itself, although I missed that time goal (PDR 2008) by seconds, I do think it was a much better performance, as that previous one was on a flat course and after 2 1/2 months of marathon training (for NYCM 2008.)  This at least shows that I’m in decent shape heading into Chicago training, and I may not have to train as crazy hard as I thought.  Don’t get me wrong, it won’t be easy.  But I don’t think I have to train as hard as I did last year and just may be able to escape injury this time around.  Only thing I might have liked was the miles along Ocean Parkway to be a little faster…but I know I left it all out there.  Gotta be satisfied with that.

And I give a huge thumbs up to the Brooklyn half, version 2.0.  The curse has been broken, and I am looking forward to running this one again next year!

happy Flyers after the Brooklyn Half

no sleep til brooklyn-redux

Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy
Got my (Adidas) Tempos, I’m out the door
I’m gonna race this city
In mile 8, Tangerine PowerGel for a snack
‘Cuz when I leave Prospect Park
I ain’t coming back!!

Don’t stop, make it pop
Gonna blow my Brooklyn PR up
This time, Imma fight
‘Til I see the finish line
Tik tok, on the clock
But the half-mary don’t stop, no
Whoa whoa oh oh, Whoa whoa oh oh…

(lyrics taken from the infamous song “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha, modified for the Brooklyn Half :))

So if this post title seems familiar….uh it’s prolly cuz I used a similar one the day before the Brooklyn Half 4 years ago.  And considering I’m catching a 5:30 am bus from the UWS (god bless the Flyers, specifically Dr. Evil for organizing this again-you can bet there would be plenty of #MTAfails, especially it being early morning on a weekend going to Brooklyn!) I think this post title may be appropriate…I do intend to get to sleep relatively early tonite, hopefully there will be nothing on TV to suck me in and keep me awake!!

So I feel pretty much ready to roll.  Did my last short run yesterday (4 miles and change on the bridle path w/ strides at the end.)  Got my bib (yellow-not surprising, I’m sure it’s gonna be a stacked/crowded race) and tech shirt!!  (pretty nice one too-short sleeve, really like the color and design.)

As for the weather…

Maybe a little warmer and humid than ideal, but still better than was originally anticipated.  (And I’m not sure this constitutes the “The weather forecast predicts a warm day” that NYRR says.)

And yes, I do have time goals, but I won’t say them right now-maybe they will be revealed in the post-race writeup.  I will say at the very least I want to erase the bad races I had in 2005 and 2006…reverse the course=reverse the curse, perhaps?

tempo in tempos

With a week and a half to go til the Brooklyn Half, last nite’s tempo workout could not have been better timed.  Perfect way for me to practice half-marathon pace, no? 🙂  But it seemed that this workout was also a lesson in patience…

Well first off was 2 x 600 with a little rest inbetween…to sorta gauge the pace/effort we should be running for the bulk of the workout.  Although I swear I was holding back, I ran the first 600 about 10 seconds faster than I was supposed to 😛  So I really tried to pull it back for the 2nd…hell, I was still able to chat!  OK, still a few seconds fast, but much better.

So the bulk of the workout was 1100 meter loops continuous…2 minimum with an optional 3rd.  Target per loop was 5:30, and the first 2 were dead on…I did have someone else to pace with, which was really good.  When I finished the 2nd loop, one of the coaches asked if I wanted to continue on for a 3rd and I was like “bring it on!”  And I was able to pick the pace up ever so slightly (hey dontcha always want to run negative splits in a workout? 🙂 ) and finish strong…of course, it may have helped being lapped by some of the speedsters near the end ;-)…maybe I was trying to stick with them?  (nahhh…)

The damage from last nite:

Again, it felt pretty comfortable…was even chatting during the 2nd loop and wasn’t breathing heavy.  So maybe sub-1:45 in Brooklyn is possible?  And if anything, this almost felt too slow for a tempo effort…or maybe this was just the coaches trying to save me from myself 🙂

Yeah, Brooklyn.  I think I’m ready.  Did my last long run this past Saturday…15 miles-7 hilly in Central Park, 8 flat along the West Side Highway.  Kinda sorta mimicking the half course 🙂  Felt pretty good, though fighting the wind tired me out.  And I apologize to everyone running behind me on the west side path, as I didn’t check the wind forecast and wore some very wind-unfriendly shorts (same shorts and effect shown here at Grete’s Half 2008).  So I guess I won’t be wearing those shorts on race day 😛  The outfit has not been decided yet, but I decided I will be wearing my Adidas Tempos…which I ran in to do the tempo run last nite (hence the post title 🙂 )

Though I did a little shoe shopping at Urban Athletics after the workout…as I finally found my gift certificate for free shoes for pacing the 3-bridges run last September (I didn’t redeem it right away due to the marathon and the injury, so I misplaced it for awhile…doh!) and I decided I wanted to buy a sweet pair of racing shoes for short distances.  So I tried on a couple and ran a little in them (even ran with a different shoe on each foot to compare and contrast!) and wound up with the Saucony Fastwitch 3…don’t they look nice?  (Lam, you will be happy with my decision 😉 )  And they feel nice too…I liked them from the minute I put them on-while I think the other pair I tried on, I was trying to convince myself to like because they looked cool (the Adidas AdiZero Adios.)

So my cool new shoes will get a debut performance on the track early next week…gonna be doing a mile time trial!!  Excited, but nervous.  On one hand, it’s gonna be hella cool running on the track at Icahn Stadium.  And I was assured that this would be a good tune-up for the half…hell if I run well, it will be a nice confidence booster heading into next Saturday.  But I’ve only run the mile once in my life…about 6 years ago.  And didn’t really feel the love for it.  But I guess I do have to remember that I wasn’t training smart back in 2004 and I am now…time and maturity has got to make a world of difference.  Or will it?  Guess I’ll find out in a week…

the results are in….

from what, you may ask?  well, remember this dilemma from a month ago?  What half-marathon to run-New Jersey or Brooklyn?  Well first off, the results of the poll were overwhelmingly in Brooklyn’s favor:

• Brooklyn-79% (19 votes)
• New Jersey-17% (4 votes-and I SO know who 3 of those 4 votes were! :-P)
• Other-4% (1 vote)

So after much deliberation…

Pretty much, the 3 extra weeks of training time was the big thing…I just felt I needed it. And it means I’ll get to be a paceleader for the More Half marathon (most likely the 2:00 group) the week before instead of cutting it short…as that is an event I really like being a part of, and nothing would make me happier than helping runners achieve their goal, cross the finish line in the time they dreamed of.  (Well I’m sure something could make me happier…but I don’t think this is neither the time nor place to go into it 😉 ) 

And as for the other 2 races I signed up for… (BTW, does anyone know why all NYRR registration emails come from a phantom email address, the “From” field is blank?)

• the Scotland Run 10K…i’m not expecting a great time there, I’m just doing it to support the Flyers as it’s a team points race.  Oh, and to have an excuse to wear my red plaid running skirt and knee-high compression socks that I wore during the Cherry Tree relay 😛  Though I hope this time around to not have to wear tights underneath! 🙂
• the Mini 10K-probably my 2nd favorite race on the NYRR calendar (1st being the Club Champs 5-miler in August.)  This has been the one race I have done every year since joining NYRR…and was my first race as a Flyer in 2004!!  Basically, this race just has a special place in my heart.  And the race experiences have ranged from great (2009) to good (2006, 2004) to inferno (2008, 2007, 2005).  Read back on my history with this race here!!

And maybe there will be a non-NYRR race or 2 in there…but those are what’s on the agenda for now!!

And good luck to those of you running the NYRR 8000 tomorrow…it’s a great race, I had a good time last year.  (And for those of you who never run 8K, it can be an automatic PR! 🙂 )  Though after looking at the weather report, I’m glad I’m sitting this one out…hmmmm what are the chances this will become a “fun run”?

“no sleep” or “the situation”

OK, as I hinted to Kevin in a previous comment of mine, a poll was gonna be coming soon…and well without further ado…here it is.

So with my fall goal race in place, I was still thinking about something to work towards in late spring…thinking half marathon.

So originally I was thinking the NJ/Long Branch half…having heard good things about the race and knowing others who are doing that race and/or the full marathon.  But then I started wondering if I’d be ready in time and wouldn’t you know it…Brooklyn is a coupla weeks later…and that is a race course I do need some revenge on.

Basically my goal would be not to “just finish”, but to run well.  I have a feeling a PR/NYCM qualifying time would be out, but I’d love under 1:50, or even better, under 1:45.

So let’s weigh the pros and cons of both:

New Jersey
Pros:	Cons:
flat, fast course-I’ve heard very good things about it other Flyers/friends running either this race or the full experience a new race possibility of guest appearances by “Snooki,” “J-Woww” or “The Situation” (yeah couldn’t resist a Jersey Shore joke)	kinda pricey (currently $85, up to $90 on March 1) no race-day packet pickup May 2nd-may not be ready in time? dealing with NJ Transit to get there…we all know how undependable they are!
Brooklyn
Pros:	Cons:
(relatively) close to home-much easier to get to may be fun to experience the new course ending at Coney Island, enjoy the post-party on the beach May 22nd-3 more weeks to prep can pace the whole 13.1 for the More Half Marathon on 4/25 instead of cutting it short to taper much cheaper ($25 before May 7) another race towards the 9 + 1 for NYCM 2011 guaranteed entry (not saying im going to run it, but nice to have the option if needed) would like revenge on this course	Prospect Park hills at the beginning heard not-so-good things about the water situation on the course, and a bottleneck when the faster runners lapped the slower runners in the park last year the boardwalk tore up my calves in 2005 and 2006-would the same thing happen again? Only 3 weeks of downtime before I’d start training for Chicago…

So help me decide!!  Poll is below…and feel free to comment your reasoning(s) for your votes too!

Thanks for playing 🙂

no MORE marathon

Now I’m not talking about myself there!  When I IM’ed a friend today and said to him “no more marathon next year-only the half” he interpreted it as I’m not doing a marathon, and only a half next year! 😛

But nope, I’m talking about what was the “More Marathon”…looks like in 2010 they are doing away with the marathon portion and only having the half-marathon!!  (And I guess also learning from last year’s mistake, they also warned about the caps way, way in advance!)  Given the declining numbers for the marathon, I’m not surprised they did away with it.

But did anyone notice the price for the half?  $60 for NYRR members, $65 for non-NYRR members?  For what will most likely be 2+ laps of Central Park…a course we can do later in the year (i.e., Grete’s) for $17?  I don’t get that!  I can understand the fee for the NYC Half, as city streets need to be closed down for the event…but for running in Central Park?  My guess is that this will be mostly out-of-towners…since racing in Central Park is a novelty for them!  After all, I have paid around that cost for halfs before…but those were “destination” ones-e.g., Philly, San Francisco, Vegas.  Oh, and this half will be on the same weekend it was last year.  Another chance at unseasonable heat and a “fun run”?  And will the new March date for the NYC Half mean a snowstorm?  It’s not like a race in March has never been turned into a fun run before…remember this one back in 2007?

Hmmm…speaking of halfs, looks like the one I am hoping to run next May will cost a pretty penny too.  But thats ok since it won’t be 2 loops of Central Park, hell it won’t even be in NYC! 🙂  Of course, that is contingent on the (sh)IT band getting better.  Yeah latest on that-not much to tell.  I decided to be brave and try the bridle path on Sunday, but the (sh)IT band was complaining by the end of the run.  Of course that may have been due to me spotting Creepy Stalker Guy and of course, I had to speed up 😛  (though I thought it’s slower speeds that aggrevate ITBS more?)  But did the rez on Tuesday…not bad.  Just kind of taking it day by day for now…wouldn’t say I’m out of the woods just yet.  Booked an appointment for next Wednesday with a new PT, one that was highly recommended by a couple of my teammates-just keeping my fingers crossed that the insurance thing works out!!  And that I can find some light at the end of this tunnel…

Office lesson learned this week, never, ever leave your computer unlocked.  Otherwise, the office smartass who has been known to hijack others email before will…well, hijack your email and send an all-staff email saying that this is the last day and that you’re leaving the company to pursue a music career…and some other smartass stuff.  Yes, this is a true story.  No, it wasn’t me whose email was hijacked, I know to keep my computer locked 🙂

And Happy Hanukkah…starts tomorrow nite!  Will celebrate it by partying, holiday-style with the Flyers…and maybe sitting on Santa’s lap (oh the irony!)  Hmmm…I think I’ve been a good girl this year…what should I ask Santa for? 😛 Well besides the obvious-a healthy right (sh)IT band!  And a BQ 🙂

coulda woulda shoulda

Well to start this off on a positive note-I ran a whopping 7 miles last week.  I used to be able to run that distance on one given day, but who’s counting.  Part of that included 2 loops of the reservoir which surprisingly weren’t as slow as I thought they would be-and I wasn’t pushing the pace, it felt comfortable.  The heart rate was a little bit elevated though, which pretty much illustrates how out of shape I am.  The (sh)IT band didn’t feel too too bad afterwards…could tell something was still there, but thankfully no pain…of course I made sure to stretch well before/after and ice it down afterwards.  So maybe this distance (not every day of course) I should stick with for now.  But I still feel it’s gonna be a long, lonely road ahead…since seemingly everyone and their mother is training for a spring marathon.  But as I said before, at this point I’m just biding my time til November 30th.  In the meantime, you can bet that when I go home to NJ for the holiday weekend, I will be bringing my quadballer, stretching rope and ice pack with me…

So this past weekend, a bunch of my teammates went to Philly to run either the marathon or the half, and as far as I know, all of them ran really well…lotsa PRs or close to it-congrats!  (yeah that includes some fellow bloggers, I’ll let them tell their stories and won’t spoil it 😉 )  And of course, it had me playing the “coulda shoulda woulda” game.  Because as you may remember, when I was trying to choose my fall marathon, Philly was #2 on my list.  Should I have gone with that instead of Marine Corps-knowing that I have run well in Philly for the half and 10-mile distances before?  Maybe I would have had more time for the (sh)IT band to heal or maybe the circumstances would be different where I would not have gotten injured?  Either way-I wasn’t getting to Boston in 2010, it just wasn’t in the cards.  But I really don’t want to end my 2009 racing year on a bad note-I really don’t want my last memory of racing in 2009 to be walking on the 14th Street Bridge in pain.  Even if I recovered in time to do a short race in late December…I don’t think there even are any!  (on a side note, I’m bummed to be missing the Kleinerman 10K-I have done that race every single year since I started running!!  Oh well, guess there’s still the Mini 10K…which also falls into that category.)

And yeah, short…or shorter…races.  I have wondered what my future as a marathoner is, as this is the 2nd time I have been injured during a training cycle (yeah, I had my plantar fasciitis before I started training for NYCM 2005 which I didn’t run anyway…but I guess that still counts.)   Do I really want to be on the DL constantly…no.  I do feel the half-marathon is actually my strongest distance, and I wonder what that 1:37 in the PDR could have been had I really tapered, if my training was more geared towards the half-marathon distance.  Providing I kick this (sh)IT band thing in time (knock on wood) I am targetting a half in early May to hopefully find that out.  But I don’t feel like I’d be content sticking with the half…I feel the half-marathon distance does not get the respect it deserves.  From comments that marathoners are “real runners” as opposed to ones who opt for the half (ahem, Lam) to others that the marathon is the “gold standard” and that training for a half-marathon is “not a lot of work.”  There’s training schedules and tips up the wazoo for running the marathon, but not much out there for a half-marathon (yeah, i’ve been trying to do my research.)  Hell while I’m at it, as I mentioned in this post last year-I feel there are a lot of distances that don’t get enough respect.  I’m just as impressed (hypothetically speaking, of course) with the person who had been working hard to break 18 minutes for 5K and finally did it…as I am with the person who had been working hard to break 4 hours in the marathon and finally did it 😉  It’s the journey, not the destination…or something like that.  (And before anyone says it, yes that thinking can be and I guess should be applied to my training for MCM too 😛 )  Or a Flyer memory that stands out in my mind was a coupla years back when we had a track meet at Chelsea Piers, and one of our girls was dying to run the mile and see how fast she can run it.  And run it well she did, came in under 9 minutes, exceeded her goals and was absolutely thrilled.  Don’t know why, but her reaction to racing the mile really sticks with me.

And what if, for whatever reason, someone *can’t* run long distances because their bodies don’t let them (e.g., being too injury-prone).  Does that mean that their goal distances should not be respected because they have no choice but to race short distances?  Or those who need extra recovery time from the marathon distance and can’t run another marathon a week or 2 later…or heck, can’t even run a half a week or 2 later.  I think I fall into that category-I feel compared to my other teammates, I am unusually slow when it comes to recovery…last year I didn’t race til a month after NYCM and it was relatively short (10K), and I felt that-the race distance and the recovery period-was perfect.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this.  But I guess…can we not treat the half-marathon like it’s the marathon’s poor stepbrother/stepsister?  (and same with the mile, 5k, 10k, etc…whatever else I missed!)  I’ve done the marathon, I have no desire to one-up that and go any further in terms of distance…and like I said, sometimes I wonder what could be if I moved down in distance and concentrated on that.  Which maybe I will do…once I get this damn BQ monkey off my back!! :(|)  (which is a whole other story in itself…)

the last 20-spot

I must really love Central Park, and doing all my long runs there.  Well actually I don’t, but when there is a half scheduled the same weekend as my last scheduled 20-miler, well gotta take advantage and roll with it.  So yeah, Grete’s Great Gallop was this past weekend and the 9 am start meant I could sneak in 7 miles beforehand and not have it be an ungodly hour.  Plus it’s a club points race, and even though i’m too slow to score for the team, I should be a good captain and run…etc, etc, etc.  Only downer was that rain was forecasted…well, it’s not like I’ve never run 20 miles in the rain, but I wanted to to listen to music during the run.  And as you all know, my first iPod died at mile 10 of Grete’s in 2006…couldn’t deal with 2 half-marathons in the rain!!

Well as it turned out, though it was a bit on the humid side (93%!), the rain would spare us.  I got out the door by 7:30 and headed to the park to start running.  And actually-what was great about doing those 7 in the park was that the water/Gatorade tables were already set up, so I could grab a cup and keep running instead of having to stop at a water fountain (hey I had my race number on, I had the right to utilize those tables!)  I finished up my 7 miles with the perfect amount of time to spare-just enough time to drop off my bag and find my corral.  Ran into Uptown Girl in my corral and we posed for the Brightroom photographer and chitchatted til it was time to run.

And off we went.  Everyone around me was passing me and I didn’t care, remember this was just a training run…the plan was to do 8:30-8:45 for the first 7, then try and run MP or close to it for the last 6.1.  But the humidity looked like it was gonna have fun with us today.  Which made me glad once again that my half-mary race effort was 2 weeks ago!!  So actually, I kept a pretty consistent pace for the first 7 miles…or as consistent as you can get with all the ups and downs.  BC was out taking pictures with the ObsceneCam™ and I was still able to smile and wave so I obviously was not working too hard 🙂  Other Flyers were out cheering while running, marshalling or standing still which was very much needed!!

So time for the last 6, time to pick up the pace.  Did run into a problem on that first mile since 1. too many near-collisions at the gatorade table and 2. just north of 72nd, the marshalls did not stop a huge group of people from crossing in front of the runners, which caused another near-collision and prolly slowed me down a little.  But besides that…not bad.  Again, I was pretty consistent…and was passing a lot of people in this loop, including those who passed me in the early miles, which made me feel good.  But I was definitely having to work for it…this time around, I wasn’t smiling so much for the camera!!  Plus I was really feeling affected by the elements…humidity was getting to me, was feeling a little under-hydrated…moreso from lack of sports drink than water.  All I could think about right at that moment was the Electric Lemonade I would be downing at the Boat Basin afterwards.  Oh yeah, maybe I was still feeling the effects from too much beer Thursday night and not enough sleep…either way, this was almost over.  The Gatorade at the bottom of Cat Hill was a sight for sore eyes, even though I didn’t have that much longer to go.  I needed it!!  Flyer EA was helping hand out the cups, and I gave him a signal that I was gonna take a cup from him…but someone else beat me to it.  Thank god Mary Wittenberg was right behind him handing out cups too!!  I downed it and then was ready to be done…about another 10 minutes and I was!! 

Not much excitement to say about the finish-remember this was just a training run!!  Splits are below…

So pretty much, I executed the plan, as I averaged 8:35 for the first 7 and 8:15 for the last 6.1, and this was in crappy conditions too. Miles 5 and 11 are the miles that begin near the top of Harlem hill and end around east 86th street-those splits really put into perspective what a sneaky uphill that mile is.  And one other thing, I used this run to rehearse the race day outfit…down to the shoes!!  Going with the DS-Trainers…and no naked shorts 😛

So did the usual post-race stuff…chitchatted and socialized with teammates and whoever else…was hoping to get a waffle but they had run out-and this would have been only 2 hours and 15 minutes into the race-there were people still running!!  And yeah, this leads to another little rant I have, as the raffle started around the same time…and of course, you had to be present to win-or even put your number in.  And again, as the course limit was 3 hours, there were people still out running!!  Shouldn’t these things be open to all runners and not just the speedsters?

Well anyway, I mentioned the Boat Basin before…and sure enough I headed over there…where me and a few others proceeded to partake in what Lam referred to as “the BEST POST-RACE PARTY EVER!”  I got my much needed Electric Lemonade.  And a coupla strawberry margaritas with salt.  Yeah, I think all of us were buzzed and happy after a short time…which led to some pretty funny conversations.  I’m sure none of you would suspect that talk about pro runners, orgasms and charades would lead to laughing so hard you’re crying…I guess you had to be there 😉

And as for me now…TAPER TIME!!!  Oh yeah….

dreams do come true

This has been such a tough race report to write.  How does one put into words….how it feels to just be floating along for 13.1 miles, to have it just seem too perfect, too easy, a dream coming true right in front of my eyes.  I’ll tell ya, two days later I’m still riding that high and I hope to be riding it in 5 weeks from now…

Long story short-as you know from my previous post…Sunday’s Philly Distance Run went much better than I could have expected.  And yeah of course, there were the tiers of goals before the race…

Main “I’d be happy” goal-Sub 1:45
Stretch goal-under my PR of 1:42:20
Uber secret super stretch goal-1:40…either sub-1:40 or 1:40:xx
 
And which goal did I achieve?  Well once again, I will start this report off with the stats and the splits…
 

And now the story!!  I guess in a way it starts on Friday when I was doing my last run before the race, an easy 3.5 miles with strides at the end…and during the run I found myself daydreaming of running a certain time, envisioning the finish line…the clock saying a certain time…etc, etc, etc 🙂  Anyway run done, work done for now, time to carb up (which included Rosh Hashanah dinner at the parentals on Friday nite!) and rest up…

Saturday morning came…NJ Transit time!!   But a little different this time-you see, I took up Uptown Girl‘s offer to crash with her at her parents place near Philly for the race weekend.  (And also, I get to partake in another Rosh Hashanah dinner on Saturday nite…see, I’m not such a bad Jew after all!)  So surprisingly, there were absolutely no NJT issues on the trip there-you see, that never happens, so of course I took it as a good sign  🙂  So anyway, made it in one piece, and we were off to the expo…got our bibs and techie(!) shirts!!  Didn’t do too much damage to the credit card…the expo was so-so, but when I saw tangerine PowerGels, you can bet I snatched more than a few of them up 🙂  So done with expo, time to go home, relax, put our feet up, conserve our energy, have dinner…before we knew it, was almost time to get my beauty sleep and knowing there wouldn’t be a lot of time to spare in the AM, made sure everything was ready to go…D-tag on the shoe, bib pinned on my top, Garmin charged, all accessories out, etc (remembered Mr. Garmin, but forgot the HRM strap!  who am i…?)…set the alarm on my CrackBerry to 5 AM and after reading and answering some “good luck” texts 😉 went to sleep…dreaming of PRs…

Next thing I knew, it was 5:15 AM and Uptown Girl flipped on the lights in my room to wake me up…holy sh*t why didn’t the CrackBerry go off?  Eventually figured out that it might have helped to turn the alarm to “On.”  Learning for next time.  Thank god I had everything prepped the night before, as I got dressed and ready in record time, since we had to be on the road by 5:30 AM!  (Figured I can have my bagel w/ white chocolate peanut butter and french vanilla coffee in the car!)  Don’t know how I pulled it off, but I did.  And to the city we go…

So…when we get there, there’s another treat in store.  Ya see, a friend of Uptown Girl’s dad has done this race every year and therefore gets VIP access for himself and others…I think you can see where this is going 🙂  Yep, how cool was it to be kinda sorta hobnobbing with the elites (Ryan Hall!), not to mention portapotties that we didn’t have to wait on line for, water and Cytomax at our disposal (and I caught a peek of some “after-race” beverages…hehe.)  Was still a little chilly then, still had my long-sleeve shirt and pants on and would wait to take those off to let the legs stay as warm as possible.  But was cool with it because it obviously meant perfect racing weather 🙂  Just tried to relax, had the iPod and listened to some of my favorite pre-gaming songs…yep of course “Pocketful of Sunshine” and “I Gotta Feeling” were on that list…oh and Madonna’s new song “Celebration” was in there too, definitely a great song to get you psyched up to run well!!

So it’s around 7:20 and us gals decided it was time to roll.  Made any last minute preps and headed towards corral 3 (cool, one up from last year! 🙂 )  Again, they weren’t being totally policed…but what can you do.  And not surprisingly, the NYC local running scene was in effect…NY Harriers, CPTC, Urban Athletics, NYAC and others…ah just like another NYRR club points race, plus 20,000 other peeps.  Well not really like that but you get what I’m saying…sometimes it’s nice to see that NYC familiarity away from home in a way.  (surprisingly, almost no Flyer representation!!  Only saw one other there besides myself…hmmm maybe everyone preferred to run the Queens Half? :-P)  Anyways, was almost go time!!  Before we knew it, it was 7:45 and the elites and 1st corral were off…a minute later corral 2…then in another minute was our turn!!

So mile 1, that was where these wave starts came into play…where last year I remembered a lot of dodging in the mile, I was really able to settle in right away.  Especially since the first few miles are on the narrower streets of Center City!!  Nothing too crazy, just an effort I felt I could maintain for 13.1…and when I saw 7:30 for the first mile, I had a feeling this was gonna be a good day.  And when I saw my mile 2, mile 3 and 5k splits (while passing other local NYC runners that are usually ahead of me in races) I knew it was gonna be a great day!!  Could it be, my dream race is actually unfolding right in front of me?

So now we were going back in the direction of where we started…looked at my watch at mile 4 (stuck by my rule of not looking at my watch unless at a mile split or a 5k/chip mat split)-just under 30 minutes!!  Remember, it was a longtime goal of mine to break 30 minutes for 4 miles…and now I did it in my last 2 races en route to a longer distance!!  Passed by the start/finish area and heard “Let’s Get It Started”…were people still waiting to start at that point?  Either way, that’s one of my fave running songs and was great to hear at this point. 🙂

So now we were on the nice and shady MLK drive for about a 5-mile stretch.  And I was loving that.  The legs knew exactly what to do, they were just totally dialed into 7:30s (give or take a second or 2).  And whereas last year, when I remember that it felt like work…I was still feeling great, was just cruising along.  Hit the 10K point…OMG, that is actually a 10K PR for me!!  Only point where I may have felt the tiniest bit of a “fade” was in mile 8…but my tangerine PowerGel (which thankfully I was able to hold onto!) took care of that 🙂

Mile 9 brought the Falls Bridge, the first “hill” of the course.  Last year I remembered it being totally unwelcome at that point 🙂  But this year was a different story.  I thought of what LG would say to me when we would run up the hills in Central Park…or if he’d be cheering me on in a race near a hill…focus on form, lean into it, look to the top…before I knew it, I was at the top and thought “that’s all it was?”  It really did seem shorter than last year! 🙂  So after turning onto Kelly Drive (and even for the previous coupla miles) I was debating whether or not to start picking up the pace a little…but decided to stick to the plan-first 10 miles for pacing, last 5k for racing.  No chip mat at 15K, but I saw a split of 1:09:45…guess I really need to race another 15K, as my PR for that distance is 1:17?  The 10-mile split brought another PR as well! 🙂  (ahhh revenge on Cherry Blossom!!  I knew I was capable of better than 1:19…)

So remember last year, my then wannabe, now actual teammate DK was running with me for the last few miles, and I remembered I really needed that…but this time was just me…and I was making it happen.  I couldn’t believe it when I saw mile 11….I only have 2.1 miles to go?  How did that happen?  This truly was the race I always daydreamed about…when you’re just flying high, every mile split coming in better than you imagined…

But during mile 12…dammit, a sidestitch got me!!  Just kept running and tried to breathe through it…under no circumstances would I stop or walk, but it signaled that I needed fluids and decided that even though there’s such little distance to go…as soon as I saw a water stop, take something!!  Thankfully, there was one right after the mile 12 marker…and that turned out to be exactly what I needed.  And looks like it didn’t slow me down too much, but of course wonder what could have been…

I remembered mile 13 last year as being evil…as it was the 2nd hill of the course, at a point where you did not want one.  And I barely had anything left, it was all I could do to dig deep and run a 7:46 mile (after two 7:41’s!)  Don’t get me wrong, I felt the incline, but I also felt I still had a little something left to leave out on the course.  Then partially through the mile, KW from the Harriers passed by and said good job, and I said I was gonna try and stick by him…or at least keep him in my sights for the rest of this mile.  Couldn’t quite keep him in my sights for long, but it did get me to pick up the intensity even more for this mile…and I see a CPTC girl…hmmm can I pass by her too?  Well I did, and in the process, ran a smokin’ hot mile 13!! 🙂

Well another thing I think I have improved upon this year is a good finishing kick…as last year at this race, I just remembered it being pretty weak.  Well not only did I have to hold off the CPTC chick that I passed, but I heard the announcer encouraging us to “get in under 100 minutes!”  Wow even with the wave start, I have a chance of getting under 1:40 on the clock too?  I gotta go for that!!  And so I did-making it with 8 seconds to spare!!  Wow!! (and just barely finished ahead of the CPTC girl too…hehe)  Was sooo happy….yet in a way, a little sad it was all over!!

Got my medal, my picture taken…then headed back to the VIP area for the real celebration to begin 🙂  And it turned out I wasn’t the only one celebrating-Uptown Girl smashed her PR with a 1:40, and just ran a very well-executed race in the process.  So anyway, remember how I said I saw certain beverages before…yep they were “adult” beverages :-P…downed 3 bottles of MGD 64…which I guess is the equivalent of one normal beer, as it did not even get me buzzed, not even in my post-half marathon depleted state 🙂  But hey, free beer is free beer!!  And it just felt so nice and celebratory to be tipping those back on such a beautiful day!

I don’t think I need to say any more to sum up the race and how I felt about my performance…I think I’ve said enough 🙂  I can only hope I can repeat this in a month at MCM.  And oh yeah…of course I had to look up what this time predicts for other distances 🙂  And the McMillan calculator says that a 1:37:36 half predicts…a 3:25:50 marathon!!!  Ummmm OK.  I do know I have to keep in mind that this was a supah flat course.  But still!!  At first I thought that I wouldn’t be drastically altering my goals, as all I wanted was reassurance that 3:40 would be doable.  But is it possible that 3:40 may be setting the bar too low…boy, my marathon goal is really up in the air now!! 🙂

a pr times 4 day

Well it looked like the poll was in a dead heat 3 ways…so it could be anybody’s game…

So short report for now-1:37:36-a PR of almost 5 minutes *and* I set 10k, 15k and 10-mile PR’s en route!

More to come…

guess my half-marathon time-2009 style!!

yep it’s back!!  Less than 3 weeks to go til the Philly Distance Run, time for the guessing game to start…check out the new poll in the sidebar!

Realistic guesses please! 🙂 To help with that, here’s a little data…

Best half ever is last year’s Philly Distance Run-1:42:20
In terms of predictors for now…my Club Champs 5M time predicts 1:42:41. (not using either of my 5K races to predict…too short!)
In comparison, last year’s Club Champs 5M time predicted 1:46:30 and I ran 1:42:20.
As always, one of the choices I feel is very unrealistic, but I felt I had to put it in anyway.
My main goal for this race…would like at the very least a PR, but kinda sorta dreaming of 1:40…I’d take either sub-1:40 or 1:40:xx

Vote early. But do not vote often-I once again fixed it so certain people won’t try and stuff the ballot box…you all know who you are!

Thanks for playing!

What will my 2009 Philly Distance Run time be?(opinion)

don’t rain on my gallop

Looking back on Runner26‘s comment to me…“And there’s no rain in the forecast (remember that!)”-I seriously have to laugh. She was right, there was no rain anywhere in the forecast!! And yet-it was raining (lightly, but still it was rain!) from around mile 10 to the end for me. I swear, whenever I run Grete’s Great Gallop, it rains!! Luckily, this was a better experience than 2 years ago (where we all “enjoyed” the downpours!)

So, I really wasn’t planning on racing this thing. I slapped a cool playlist on the iPod, put on the regular trainers, frontloaded with a couple of miles…all signs that I wasn’t taking this super-seriously. Yeah, ran 2 miles from home, down around the bottom of the park to the race start (which also meant I could cheer for those runners doing the Norway Run!)…perfect!! Was definitely enough time to get it done, but man…the baggage area was a distaster area-too damn crowded, then we heard warning announcements to get to the corrals (and it was only 20 minutes to the race start!) I headed over to my corral (yellow this time) and found a few other Flyers and chitchatted til it was time to start…we were lined up in an unfortunate spot, as we were near a speaker and it just made Mary Wittenberg’s voice sound all the louder and more piercing. Thank god for headphones to cut that out a little. 9:00 finally came and the starting horn sounded.

So I really, really tried to hold back. There were quite a few teammates who were passing me and I just let them go and do my own thing. I made sure to have slower-tempo (but still upbeat) songs on the playlist for the first few miles (save the fast stuff for the end.) Just tried to stay relaxed. Still was surprised to see 8:37 for the first mile…net downhill or no net downhill, still too fast. Mile 2, up that gradual west side uphill…8:42. Hmmm…guess this is gonna wind up being an MP effort. Either that, or I completely underestimated what effect the fabulous weather (49 degrees!) would have on me. Whatever-honestly, I just kept running pretty steadily and I was really having a great time…enjoying my music, saying hi to people I knew, thanking those cheering, chitchatting every now and then, smiling for the camera-whether it be Brightroom or Flyer BC…yep, this was what a “fun run” should really be!! :-p

The aforementioned rain? Started around mile 10 for me. Like I said before-it really wasn’t that bad but I had to laugh that it happened when rain wasn’t even on the agenda. Was still feeling good, but by the mile 11 marker, I was ready to be done and out of the rain. So I decided to crank it up for the last 2.1 miles…also visualizing the marathon finish. Like in 2006, when once I hit the park, to go for it. And it felt pretty good to be passing people at the end, instead of the other way around 🙂 Resulted in a strong mile 12, a smokin’ mile 13, and a last push up the hill to the finish line. Finished in 1:52:37 (8:35 pace) (according to the NYRR results.)

Doing the splits…

And don’t worry…I don’t think the course was really 13.3 miles…hehe.

The hard work is done, time to relax. Flyer JW thanked me for being his rabbit-we were kinda trading places back and forth throughout…I stayed ahead for a few miles, he finally passed me for good around mile 11. I feel so used :-p Flyer DM and I braved the long-ass line for waffles (as I missed getting them 2 years ago because of the rain!) but was fine as we chitchatted the whole time so it went by pretty quick. And it was worth it 🙂 Also raided the bagels with salmon…and then chitchatted some more with my teammates (and also a closet blog reader of mine!) Finally around noon, we all headed our separate ways…to either nap, or to warm up (I had my long-sleeve shirt and a jacket on, but it was still chilly!)

Seemed like there were a lot of good times today…I looked at some of my teammates’ PRs wistfully and wonder what I would have been able to do if I had raced this. But-on the other hand-I had my good half marathon race 2 weeks ago and more recovery time from that before the big one. Besides, I felt this was more beneficial to work on executing the race plan on the big day…I think as long as the weather cooperates-some good things just may come out of November 2nd…

an early birthday present

Yes…with the Philadelphia Distance Run falling 5 days before my birthday…what better birthday present can there be than a new half-marathon PR (not to mention getting the half-marathon monkey off my back? 🙂 )

I’ll start this race report off with the stats and the splits…

Mile splits (unofficial):

Mile 1-8:10
Mile 2-7:31
Mile 3-7:46
Mile 4-7:45
Mile 5-6:45 (short!)
Mile 6-8:59 (long!)
Mile 7-7:53 (sports drink)
Mile 8-7:52 (gel)
Mile 9-7:54 (hill!)
Mile 10-7:47
Mile 11-7:41
Mile 12-7:41
Mile 13-7:46 (another hill!)
last .1-0:50

And now-for the story behind the numbers.

As most of you may know, the half-marathon distance has been sort of a monkey I’ve had on my back for a few years. I set my PR of 1:43 in January 2005, and have not come close since (my next best time being 4 1/2 minutes slower!) Hoping my marathon training 2 years ago may fix that, but both halfs I tried to race were cursed with downpours. But I had a feeling this could be my year…I was patient and decided to save my half-marathon attempt for a good course at a more ideal time of year (read: hopefully no heat and humidity!) And Philly was already good to me with the Broad Street Run…

So the plan was as follows-train it to Philly on Saturday, stay overnight, train it back to NYC on Sunday. And shocker-NJ Transit did its NJ Transit thing…as my train left Penn 15 minutes late with no explanation. (and once again, I was sitting by a bunch of annoying kids who just yapped away the entire time. Why does this always happen to me?) I thought I was gonna miss my SEPTA connection in Trenton, thankfully they held it!! Took it as a good sign 🙂 Dropped my stuff off in the hotel, went over to the expo, got my bib (with a very cool number-#4444!!) and browsed around. I didn’t really do much damage to the credit card, there was nothing I really wanted to buy-though this “Will Run For Wine” singlet was very tempting!! Only thing I bought was a coupla pairs of throwaway gloves, as I will need for the NYC start and I remember they werent at last year’s expo. I ran a coupla more errands, then back to the hotel to rest til dinner…my legs were tired and I was a little worried about that. I met up with Flyer VV for dinner at Buca di Beppo-hey if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…my pre-race meal did me good for Broad Street so of course I duplicated it-right down to the glass of merlot. VV was running not just his first half, but his first race ever so I gave him plenty of pointers. 🙂 I wound up crashing mad early…needed my beauty sleep for the next day!!

Race day…the usual routine!! Woke up too early as usual-had my usual cup of coffee, bagel with white chocolate peanut butter, got dressed, stretched, hydrated…listened to pre-run music…and yes, “Pocketful of Sunshine” was one of the songs as it was at Broad Street, and another one has been added to the list-“Viva La Vida” by Coldplay. I left my room around 6:30 and stopped by Starbucks to get my “magic” concoction-coffee with a shot of vanilla syrup. Drank that and then it was time to warm up…and how perfect was it that the start was a mile away? There’s my warmup 🙂 Hit up the porto-johns…and from what I heard it was perfect timing, as I only waited a few minutes and I heard there were half-hour waits at times. I dropped off my bag at gear check, stretched a little more, and by that time, the corrals were open. I was in corral 4, which looked like it was pretty close to the front. However, these corrals weren’t being completely policed, as there were people who belonged in corrals further back walking forward, and no one was really stopping them…whatever. I saw Uptown Girl-she was in corral 3, so she hung in the back of that corral, and me in the front of 4 so we chit-chatted a little while waiting for the start. Her TRD teammate, AH joined us…he was going for around the same time I was so we figured we could try and work together. Once again, I was pretty calm before the start…gonna be a good thing!! The singing of the national anthem signaled that it was almost start time-oh, but the person singing either botched the lyrics or came up with his own…needless to say there were a lot of “WTFs?” around. The wheelchairs were off, and then so were we!! “Beautiful Day” by U2 was playing as we crossed the start…and boy, I hoped that would be true!! 🙂

There was a little bit of maneuvering in mile 1…definitely a lot of people not lined up right, but maybe a good thing so it could hold me back a little. AH and I stuck together for the first half-mile but then he pulled ahead and I let him go…we’ll each run our own race. Saw Flyer CD and his fiancee (and former Flyer) EB cheering…I smiled and waved to them, was good to see some support on the sidelines. At mile 1…hmmm. I knew I wanted to be conservative, but thought that was a little slow…picked up the pace a little bit as we headed past City Hall and onto Market Street. As for the 2nd split, I don’t know if that was too fast, or was mile 1 long and 2 short? Either way, I was right on pace, and my mission for the next few miles was to just maintain 7:50s or better. I was so glad to make the turn and head west, as we were running directly into the sun and now the sun would be behind us for at least a few miles. Saw CD and EB again near where I saw them previously (the out and back on Benjamin Franklin Parkway)…and through mile 4, all was well…time to leave the city streets behind for a bit and run along MLK Drive.

And this part was much shadier, which was a relief…even though the temps were in the high 50s, the sun was strong which made it feel a little hotter. Was still feeling decent-this definitely was no cakewalk (and as I was telling myself “this is a goal race, you gotta work for it!”) but I felt a helluva lot better than I did at this point in…last year’s Queens Half for example 🙂 I concentrated on just staying relaxed (yeah, some yoga thinking got into me…the word “flow” went through my head several times along that stretch!) I saw singlets from other NYC teams…CPTC, Warren St, NY Harriers…and passed on by em 🙂 When I saw the mile 5 split I said “No eff-ing way…” we were all in consensus that it was short. Confirmed by the long mile 6. Was trying to do the math in my head to average the 2 but the brain wasn’t having it 🙂 Grabbed some Cytomax (which I actually do like!) past the 10K point but spilled part of it on myself…thought “great, now i’m hot, sticky and sweet.” It’s crazy the things that run through your mind during races!

Around mile 7.5, I took my gel and tried to grab some water at the mile 8 station to wash it down…but grabbed another cup of Cytomax instead. Oops!! Hopefully that won’t do damage (it didn’t.) And in this mile this guy, DK ran beside me-one that was a wannabe Flyer and was contacting those what were doing the race to see if anyone wanted to run together…I had said at the time thanks but no thanks, as his plan was to take it easy-and I reminded him of that :-p The response-it’s hard to hold back when you’re in the race atmosphere…anyway, DK asked if he could stick by me so he wouldn’t be tempted to go any faster and I said sure. Actually-it was good for me to have a pacing buddy for the last few miles.

Mile 9 included the Falls Bridge…and the first hill of the course!! Granted, its nothing compared to Central Park, but still, a hill is never welcome 🙂 I said “where the hell did that come from”? 🙂 It was short, crossed over the bridge where there was a bagpiper playing…reminded me of PD playing at mile 20 of the NYC Marathon :)…then a little downhill to come off the bridge and onto Kelly Drive…where there was still a bit of shade, but we were running into the sun once again, so it was definitely heating up. There was no chip mat at the 15K marker, but I looked at my watch quickly and saw it was at 1:13:xx…hmm, guess that 15K PR is kinda soft. At the 10-mile split…I tried to do some quick math to figure out if I was on pace or not…I had sped up a little in mile 10, but was it enough? Whatever the case, time to get to work for the last 5K.

Make no mistake. It was tough. It was hot, my legs were tired. DK was a great pacing partner though, just letting me stay quiet and just run, but being encouraging too. At the mile 11 and 12 splits, I said “nice…” I think I had it. (DK had started 20 seconds ahead of me, so he thought we were cutting it closer than we actually were…may have been a good thing though!!)

My god, mile 13 was evil. The 2nd hill of the course, but at the point where you definitely do NOT want one (reminds me of the last 1.1 miles of the Brooklyn Half!) I was so tired. After mile 12…it looked like I could just coast along at an 8 minute pace and still make it in under 1:43…but why take that chance. This was the defining moment of this race…the point where I told myself the most influential thing…“You did not come this far to have another ‘so close’ moment.” Not just far in terms of traveling, but the fact that I was on PR pace for so long…no effin way was I gonna lose it in the last mile, just suck it up…almost there!!! The mile 13 marker was a relief…it was all downhill from there to the finish-literally!!! My sprint at the end of halfs is never my strength, and it wasnt today, but at that point I did not care!! I crossed the finish line with a huge smile and the first thought that went through my head-GOODBYE, 3 1/2 year old PR!!! 🙂

Got my medal, my picture taken (and several comments about my very cool bib number!!) some water and sports drink-and more Starbucks coffee!…didn’t take food, as once again I really didn’t feel like eating (normally the case after a hard effort like this). I got my bag and walked around the finish area…partially to walk off the effort and partially to look for people. I saw Flyers JB, JA and FR…i saw Uptown Girl who was happy with her MP effort. I walked the mile back to the hotel which I really needed…got cleaned up, checked out, then me and VV (who had a great first half with a 1:52…i told him he’d be able to run under 2 hours!) celebrated our efforts with burgers and beer. Then off to the train station for me, and thankfully a drama-free train trip home!!

I was very pleased with this race!! Unlike the Vegas half-which even though it was a PR, was kinda anti-climactic…this one was very memorable. Plus, the pacing in that race wasn’t my best (only thing that saved me in the last 5k was a tailwind), whereas this one I feel I paced a lot better. I was glad to finally run the half-marathon that I thought I had in me, but was never able to produce…especially since I wasn’t completely tapered for this, wonder what I’d be capable of on fresher legs!! But like I said before-the monkey is off my back, no longer does the half-marathon PR need to be asterisked!!

And as for my NYCM goals? The McMillan calculator predicts a 3:35:49 marathon…add 10 minutes for the hills, still on target for an under-3:50 goal!! Not gonna be drastically altering my goals (maybe be a little more flexible, like hit between 3:45 and 3:49). But next year, maybe next year…