Distance: Half Marathon
Previous PR: 1:54:27
Time: 1:52:28 (New PR!)
Time: 1:52:28 (New PR!)
Overall Place: 5423 / 15324
Gender Place: 1696 / 7879
Age Place: 470 / 1893 (58.5%)
Long Version
After last year's NYC Half lottery fiasco, it was announced that for the 2012 NYC Half, NYRR members could obtain automatic entry if they completed 4/5 Borough Halves in 2012. I missed the Manhattan half, but I did Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, and received credit for the Bronx since it was cancelled due to Hurricane Irene. So in October, I knew that I had earned guaranteed entry for this race.
My previous PR was at Cape Cod in October, but although I had one sub-2 half under my belt, my personal best NYRR half was 2:01:50 in Brooklyn, and I wanted to rectify that. The NYC Half course would be more difficult, but I hoped that being more experienced and better trained would lead to a PR, or at least a similar time.
This time around, I used a Glover plan from their book and averaged 31mpw over the 12 week plan. There were some high points during this cycle. I completed my first 16 mile run and my first 25K. In addition, I ran a half-marathon in a snowstorm which improved my mental toughness. However, there were also some low points. I started having knee issues, and decided to DNS a 4 mile race I had planned at the end of February. I thought that skipping speedwork and racing would be enough, but after the pain got worse, I took three days off. Thankfully, my knee felt better after that, but missing a lot of speedwork and a couple of runs left my confidence shaken. At that point I thought I would be lucky if I could get sub-2.
On Friday night, I went to pick up my bib, shirt and goodie bag at the expo. I was told that I might be able to fit into an x-small, which usually doesn't happen, but when I got there, they were all out, so I took a small. The tech shirt was ok, but it would have been nice if there had been gender specific shirts. The unisex ones were kind of poor fitting. I didn't spend too much time at the expo - I got a free odwalla bar (which I didn't really care for), and then left. The next day, after going to the St. Patrick's Day and running a million errands, I prepared my outfit for the next day.
My friend Rachel crashed at my place the night before. She got us a few course specific pace bands for the course, one for 1:59, 1:57 and one for 1:55. I took the 1:57 thinking that as long as I got at least that, I would be happy enough. As we were packing, I realized that I had run out of clif bloks, but luckily Rachel came to my rescue with extras. I would return the favor the next day when her clear NYCH luggage bag broke and I fit her warm clothes in my bag. Are we a good team or what?
We wake up at 5:15am, and after eating our pre-race bagels and packing, we left my place at 6am and got a downtown bus. Checking in my bag was easy enough, and we made our way into the corrals. Although Rachel and I put down the same predicted time, she was assigned to the corral ahead of me, but she ended up waiting with me and a super-speedy friend of hers. I couldn't hear any of the announcements up front, but an actor from the Book of Mormon sang the National Anthem, and it sounded really good.
Ultimately, it would take the field at least 45 minutes to cross the start - according to news coverage - and my corral crossed around 10 minutes into the race. We all were jogging the last bit, but after almost running into a couple of walkerswho clearly wanted to get trampled the race finally began.
The first 10K of the course was in Central Park. We completed one full loop plus a little bit extra. The first 5k was easy, and I started out a little faster than I should have. I reached the 5k mark at 26:19 (8:27mm), which beats my 5k PR by over a minute.
After this point, I hit the hardest hills in the park, so my 10K split was the slowest one of the day. Harlem Hill and the West Side Hills were tiring, but I kept going, knowing that Times Square and the rest of the city weren't so far away. Although it was my slowest split of the day, I still got a new unofficial 10K PR of 53:43 (8:39mm)
Shortly after that, I left the park and ran on 7th avenue heading into Times Square. It was so nice running through the city streets that I had to keep reminding myself not to slow down. As I passed through Times Square, I saw a video screen of Mary W. (head of NYRR) interviewing the female winner of the race. After that, we turned down 42nd Street and ran west towards the highway.
My Garmin started acting a bit wonky and was telling me that I was running 9:30s but I knew that it was a signal problem so I just kept going. Mile 8 came really late, so I thought that I had missed it, but I found it just as we were turning onto the West Side high way going downtown. For a moment, I thought that it was going to be as awful as Ocean Parkway was in Brooklyn, but the weather and course entertainment prevented that from happening, plus I knew that I wasn't going to bonk this time. I reached the 15K point at 1:20:31, which was about a minute slower than my current 15K PR. I had sped up slightly from the 10K point, averaging 8:38mm
As I hit the 10 mile marker, I looked at my pace band and realized that I was at least 3 minutes ahead of a 1:57 finish. At that point, I started to hope that perhaps a PR would be within reach. After stopping for water at mile 11, I resolved not to stop for the rest of the race and to keep going at a fast, but steady clip. The race continued down past the world trade center, where some enthusiastic cops were cheering us on, and around the bottom of the city. I started to get excited when I saw signs for the Battery tunnel, knowing that I was almost there.
The tunnel itself was a bit stifling, but it was interesting to run through. I had heard that there would be this big incline, but I wasn't sure when that was going to happen. My garmin signal was lost completely, so I was very happy that I had decided to manually indicate the miles. I hit the 20K point at 1:46:54, and had sped up slightly to a 8:36 mile. Shortly after that, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, leading into....a massive uphill???? Really? I was warned about it, but while NYRR said it wasn't that big of a deal, one of my other running friends was right to warn us about how steep it was. However, I refused to let it slow down my momentum, so I went up it as fast as possible so I wouldn't lose pace.
I then started seeing signs closer to the finish....800m....400m....13 mile sign (still hit the lap button)...as I got within the last 200 meters I realized that I was within reach of finishing under 1:52:30. I ran as fast as possible, and then as I approached the finish, I waved my arms up as I crossed, stopped my watch, and knew that I had done it. 1:52:28 was my official time, which is technically a 1:59 PR (but I enjoy rounding). One of my friends was volunteering at the finish, so I said hi to her. She said that I was "beaming ear to ear".
Since it was such a huge race, I was able to get many cool statistics from the tracking website, including a pace graph.
The finish chute was the only awful part of that race. The closest subway was blocked off, so we had to walk about a mile to the next closest station. Also, the medal was ok, but I know that last year's was much better. I usually don't care about medals, but it's clear that NYRR went as cheap as possible this year compared to last year in terms of tech shirts and medals. Considering the price increased dramatically, it should have been the other way.
That being said, I enjoyed every other aspect of this race. I was afraid that the increased field size would ruin my race, but ultimately I was able to run the entire time. The weather was amazing, and the aid stations were well stocked. While I would not want to go through the 4/5 ordeal to qualify again, I'm glad I got to experience this race once.
This time also indicates that I have not reached my potential for any of the shorter distances, but that is a discussion for another time. For the half, I would like to eventually get sub-1:50. Perhaps I'll chose a target half next year once marathon training is over and see if it's possible.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for Part II....after I complete the NYC Marathon in November!
On Friday night, I went to pick up my bib, shirt and goodie bag at the expo. I was told that I might be able to fit into an x-small, which usually doesn't happen, but when I got there, they were all out, so I took a small. The tech shirt was ok, but it would have been nice if there had been gender specific shirts. The unisex ones were kind of poor fitting. I didn't spend too much time at the expo - I got a free odwalla bar (which I didn't really care for), and then left. The next day, after going to the St. Patrick's Day and running a million errands, I prepared my outfit for the next day.
My friend Rachel crashed at my place the night before. She got us a few course specific pace bands for the course, one for 1:59, 1:57 and one for 1:55. I took the 1:57 thinking that as long as I got at least that, I would be happy enough. As we were packing, I realized that I had run out of clif bloks, but luckily Rachel came to my rescue with extras. I would return the favor the next day when her clear NYCH luggage bag broke and I fit her warm clothes in my bag. Are we a good team or what?
We wake up at 5:15am, and after eating our pre-race bagels and packing, we left my place at 6am and got a downtown bus. Checking in my bag was easy enough, and we made our way into the corrals. Although Rachel and I put down the same predicted time, she was assigned to the corral ahead of me, but she ended up waiting with me and a super-speedy friend of hers. I couldn't hear any of the announcements up front, but an actor from the Book of Mormon sang the National Anthem, and it sounded really good.
Ultimately, it would take the field at least 45 minutes to cross the start - according to news coverage - and my corral crossed around 10 minutes into the race. We all were jogging the last bit, but after almost running into a couple of walkers
After this point, I hit the hardest hills in the park, so my 10K split was the slowest one of the day. Harlem Hill and the West Side Hills were tiring, but I kept going, knowing that Times Square and the rest of the city weren't so far away. Although it was my slowest split of the day, I still got a new unofficial 10K PR of 53:43 (8:39mm)
Shortly after that, I left the park and ran on 7th avenue heading into Times Square. It was so nice running through the city streets that I had to keep reminding myself not to slow down. As I passed through Times Square, I saw a video screen of Mary W. (head of NYRR) interviewing the female winner of the race. After that, we turned down 42nd Street and ran west towards the highway.
My Garmin started acting a bit wonky and was telling me that I was running 9:30s but I knew that it was a signal problem so I just kept going. Mile 8 came really late, so I thought that I had missed it, but I found it just as we were turning onto the West Side high way going downtown. For a moment, I thought that it was going to be as awful as Ocean Parkway was in Brooklyn, but the weather and course entertainment prevented that from happening, plus I knew that I wasn't going to bonk this time. I reached the 15K point at 1:20:31, which was about a minute slower than my current 15K PR. I had sped up slightly from the 10K point, averaging 8:38mm
As I hit the 10 mile marker, I looked at my pace band and realized that I was at least 3 minutes ahead of a 1:57 finish. At that point, I started to hope that perhaps a PR would be within reach. After stopping for water at mile 11, I resolved not to stop for the rest of the race and to keep going at a fast, but steady clip. The race continued down past the world trade center, where some enthusiastic cops were cheering us on, and around the bottom of the city. I started to get excited when I saw signs for the Battery tunnel, knowing that I was almost there.
 |
| It's a good thing that I did my splits manually The time column was significantly more accurate this time |
I then started seeing signs closer to the finish....800m....400m....13 mile sign (still hit the lap button)...as I got within the last 200 meters I realized that I was within reach of finishing under 1:52:30. I ran as fast as possible, and then as I approached the finish, I waved my arms up as I crossed, stopped my watch, and knew that I had done it. 1:52:28 was my official time, which is technically a 1:59 PR (but I enjoy rounding). One of my friends was volunteering at the finish, so I said hi to her. She said that I was "beaming ear to ear".
.jpg) |
| I'm in the light blue t-shirt with my arms up in the air |
The finish chute was the only awful part of that race. The closest subway was blocked off, so we had to walk about a mile to the next closest station. Also, the medal was ok, but I know that last year's was much better. I usually don't care about medals, but it's clear that NYRR went as cheap as possible this year compared to last year in terms of tech shirts and medals. Considering the price increased dramatically, it should have been the other way.
That being said, I enjoyed every other aspect of this race. I was afraid that the increased field size would ruin my race, but ultimately I was able to run the entire time. The weather was amazing, and the aid stations were well stocked. While I would not want to go through the 4/5 ordeal to qualify again, I'm glad I got to experience this race once.
This time also indicates that I have not reached my potential for any of the shorter distances, but that is a discussion for another time. For the half, I would like to eventually get sub-1:50. Perhaps I'll chose a target half next year once marathon training is over and see if it's possible.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for Part II....after I complete the NYC Marathon in November!
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