Cape Cod Half Marathon Update: Race Logistics and Goals

In less than two weeks, I will be running the Cape Cod marathon, and now that I have more information on race day logistics, it is time to start thinking obsessing (even more than I already am) about every single minute detail!

Bib Number / Pickup: I almost missed the email because it hit my spam box, but thankfully their website said they sent out emails so I was able to find it. I am #25 - the bib number must have been determined by the order of registration. For NYRR races I will never have a bib number that is less than four digits long.

B Tag vs. D Tag: The Cape Cod Marathon uses B Tags. This means that instead of fastening a separate tag on the shoe, your race bib has the timing chip taped to it. So bending the bib or hiding it under clothing is generally a bad idea. I've only raced once with a B Tag and it seemed to work out, but it also helps that I'll probably be wearing only one layer for this race.

Baggage/Pre-race stuff: Apparently baggage will be stored in plastic bags in a truck. If I can't shower in my hotel room, there are available showers at the school so I'll pack spare clothes and shower stuff along with my phone.

Lining Up: All participants can line up in the staging area between 6:15 and 7:20. I'll probably make sure to line up by 7am if possible (after using the restroom, checking my baggage, etc).


Course Map/Elevation: The course has a small out and back in the beginning for the first few miles, then kind of travels south along the coast to a turn-around point, then more inland on the way back. According to the race website, the course is "generally flat except for some rolling hills between miles 6.5 and 9.5". The course will be marked with mile signs and turns indicated by "1/2" in white paint. For the first time, I'm a bit nervous that I'll miss a turn and end up getting lost somewhere on Cape Cod. Hopefully there will be some course marshals out there in case. In addition, the roads will NOT be closed to traffic, which will be a first for me. I can deal with running on the right side of the road, but I will not be happy pissed off if my goal time is compromised due to waiting for traffic.

Course Amenities: There will be two porta-potties on the course at miles 4 and 9.8 but hopefully I won't have to use either one. There will be water stations every 3 miles along the course, which is very important information when considering my fueling strategy. If I run at my goal pace, that will mean that there will be approximately 27 minutes in between each water station. I have gone that long in previous races, so I'm not extremely worried about it, but if it's much hotter than I predict it will be, I reserve the right to take my handheld, but I hope that won't be the case because I'd rather not carry anything extra. Assuming I don't have to take my handheld, I'll need to take my shot bloks just before hitting the mile 6 water station. It's a bit earlier than I would like to take them, as I usually take them every hour, but waiting until mile 9 wouldn't be the best idea. This week I am practicing taking water every 3 miles in Central Park, and if I can do it over easy runs, which take longer, I should be more than fine for race day.

Finish Line: Times will be posted at the nearby school. They also have a post-race meal, but I'll probably go out somewhere with my parents after I check my official time. I'd rather not wait until the evening to check them online if I don't have to, but at least I'll have my garmin so I won't be too far off in the worst case scenario.

My Goals for Cape Cod: I have decided on my A, B, and C goals. They are as follows...
A. Finish in under 1:58:30
B. Finish in under 2 hours
C. Finish in under 2:01:50 (my current PR)
D. Clearly something went very wrong. Re-evaluate, and then focus on getting sub-2 in either the Manhattan Half or the NYC Half early next year (and try not to spontaneously combust at the two hour mark wherever I am on the course)

Pacing Strategy: I plan on sticking to a 8:50-9:00mm pace until mile 10. If my garmin goes below 8:45mm I will immediately pull back. If I take 10-15 seconds to walk through both water stations, I will lose approximately 30 seconds total throughout the first half, which won't be a major deal since 9:09 is really the slowest pace I can do and still get sub-2. At mile 10, if I am feeling good, I will speed up and do the final 5k at around 8:40-8:45mm. If I am starting to feel tired, I will do my best to maintain 9mm.

I'll try and keep things in perspective and have fun, but I feel that if I was able to get so close to sub-2 in the Brooklyn Half (where I made tons of rookie mistakes), I should be able to achieve it this time barring any unforeseen circumstances. Training has gone very well this cycle, and I have managed to incorporate all of my speedwork and tempo runs in (with the exception of changing one tempo run to an easy run due to a cold). While a part of me knows that I should be able to do this, I'm too cautious paranoid to count my chickens before they hatch.

Note to self: Never run a half marathon the day after fasting

This last week was a significant week for a couple of reasons:

 1. I got my 4/5 borough halves needed for guaranteed entry to the NYC half next year - Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx (credit) and Staten Island (more on the Staten Island race below)
2. I hit the 1,000 mile mark for the year this past Friday

Staten Island was a tough race for me, but I only anticipated one of the following obstacles
1. I had a bad cold a few days before
2. The day before was Yom Kippur - that meant 27 hours of complete fasting that's hard to recover from in less than 12 hours (this I anticipated)
3. Hills! Whoever said this course was mostly flat was clearly mistaken
4. The heat - isn't this supposed to be a FALL race?

Last night, I had a major headache and my stomach was upset from breakfast, so I was extremely nervous going to sleep. Thankfully, I had taken theraflu the day before and my cold had gone away, but I still felt under the weather from fasting.

I woke up the next morning, and felt ok, so I got ready to head to the terminal. Rachel had stayed over, so we split a cab to get there by 7am. We get there by 7am to find an already crowded terminal. We met up with my friends Nicole and Abbey, and we met Nicole's sister in law Kelly and her friend. In hindsight, it probably would have been smarter to go for the 6:30am ferry, but I had been told that runners had always managed to get on in the past. Also, at the time, I just was not in the mood to spend an extra hour and a half on Staten Island. Because my friends and I were close to the doors when the ferry loaded, we got on, but there was a large group of runners who had been waiting for almost half an hour that weren't nearly as lucky. I would end up seeing much faster runners pass me during the race since they got such a late start.

The ferry left late, so it was already 8:10 when we got to Staten Island. I knew that I needed to use the restroom before we started, so Abbey, Rachel and I stopped while the others made their way towards the race. Once we left, Abbey rushed ahead while Rachel and I made our way to baggage. I checked my bag, and as we went towards the corrals they started to collapse. Thankfully we were still able to get into my corral just in time for the national anthem. This was definitely the closest I have come to being late to a race, and I have no plans on cutting it that close again.

This was never meant to be a goal race. That is still about 20 days away at this point. In fact, due to timing, I almost did not attempt the 4/5, but that ended up being the only reason why I showed up at the starting line. Therefore, I used this as a long training run instead.

The first five to six miles were honestly just awful. Despite eating an entire bagel with cream cheese before hand (I usually only eat half), I just had no energy on the course and I had to force myself to keep going. If I hadn't been going for my 4/5, I could have easily just walked off that course with no regrets. By the way, where did those HILLS come from? I was told that this course was "fast and flat"! At least we were treated to some nice views of the bay. Too bad it was far too warm outside for a fall race to enjoy it.

There was music all along the first part of the course, and it made things slightly more bearable for me. This was the second time I ended up listening to Lady Gaga songs during a race. I carried a water bottle, something I wouldn't usually do for a fall race, but it was a much warmer day than it should be in October and I knew I had a hydration deficit from the day before.

Just before mile 5, we saw the leaders heading back towards us and they looked very strong. The first place male finisher was far ahead of the pack at this point. We ran towards the halfway point, and I slowly but surely started to feel better after walking through a water stop.

As we headed back, we saw our friend Gary looking strong out there as he made his way towards the halfway point. We looked for Nicole as well - she saw us but we missed her. Then we approached the one hill we actually got warned about - it was steep, but no worse than facing Harlem Hill, and after that, the rest of the race didn't seem so bad. I think that drinking lots of water on the course and taking my usual shot bloks halfway probably contributed to a better second half.

I took off in the last minute or so of the race and had a fast finish, but overall my time was 2:12:33 (10:08mm) - you can see my splits here. Clearly this was not a PR, but considering how I felt going into the race, I consider this a victory, especially when I put things in perspective: in the New Years race, I did 4 miles at a 10:08 pace, and that was my PR. Now, I'm doing that for a half marathon, and that's not even close to being my best time. In fact, I probably should not have gone faster than 10:15 per mile, but thankfully I was close enough that I could still count this as an easy training run.

All of us met up at the end for a bit, then Abbey, Rachel and I rushed to make the 11:30 ferry out since we were all completely exhausted from the race. We sat on the top deck this time, and had a nice view of the ride home (see pic above for a view of the Statue of Liberty). I enjoyed the race overall, but I'm not sure I would do it next year, especially since the ferry on Sundays is a big pain to deal with.

To summarize, here is what I learned today:
1. Never do a half marathon the day after a fast (I can't imagine doing Chicago after Yom Kippur - I wonder how those people did it)
2. Take the earlier ferry, even if it means getting there ridiculously early
3. The Staten Island course is not flat nor does it have any shade

Only 19 more days until I'm in Cape Cod getting ready for my goal race!

It takes a lot of patience and restraint to use a HM as a training run...

This past week was a cutback week for me, so I was only supposed to do a total of about 26 miles with a "long run" of about 5 miles. But that weekend I saw that Grete's Great Gallop was going on in Central Park. I figured that it would be fun to do it as a long training run with friends. Also, the race was the second one this year that honored the late Grete Waitz, who died of cancer this year.

Since it was a cutback week, I had no tempo runs or speed work scheduled. To compensate for the added distance in my long run, I cut down to running four days instead of five. I had a few easy 4-5 milers that went pretty well.

After celebrating Rosh Hashanah on Thursday and Friday, I was all ready to go on Saturday. Rachel had stayed over that night and planned on doing an extra 7 miles beforehand. As she was about to leave, she realized that her garmin didn't properly charge and was dead. Or so she says. I'm convinced she did it on purpose so that I wouldn't be able to speed ahead ;)

I run a warm up mile down to the race, check the baggage, and wait in Rachel's corral for her and Wallis. Since it was a club points race, we were almost in the nose bleed section even though all three of us had bib times under nine minute miles. Supposedly, there were really nice words said about Grete but I couldn't hear what was going on up front. While I was waiting, I ended up meeting a girl who went to my school and had a couple of mutual friends. Small world, huh?

I found Rachel and Wallis, and after a few minutes, the race began. I had my stopwatch on, but I didn't bother using it. This was my first time using a half marathon as a training run, and I found it very difficult to keep a slow and steady pace, especially since I wasn't wearing my garmin. Had I been on my own, I probably would have taken it too fast and ended up racing it. To my credit though, I only needed to be told a few times to slow down. Running slow is much more difficult than it looks!

My parents and grandparents were waiting for us shortly after mile two, and snapped a few pictures of us. I gave a thumbs up as I passed to indicate that I was feeling pretty good so far. In fact, I felt good the entire time, which made sense since it was a training run and not a race for me. My hamstring was slightly sore but it was nothing stretching couldn't cure. In fact, my only real issue was that I had to use the restroom for most of the race, but not badly enough to stop.

We were lapped by the male leaders on our first loop, and I think I heard the female leader approaching the finish line as we were running past it heading into our second loop. I almost am never lapped on a loop course in Central Park, so it was a real treat to see the elite athletes run past us. They make running look easy!

Our splits were pretty consistent. It's Rachel's 20 miler - I didn't do the first 7 miles and my last mile was slightly faster since I pulled ahead, but I think you'll get the idea.

Over the last couple of months, I learned that one has to be patient and keep their eyes on the prize. As much as my ego is bruised to have a time of 2:16:53 as a half marathon time on record, I just have to keep telling myself that I can't let all of my hard work towards the Cape Cod Half go to waste.

The next couple of weeks are my hardest weeks yet - I have 36 and 37 miles on the schedule respectively. In addition, I have to fast the day before the Staten Island half, so I've been drinking Gatorade every day to compensate for the loss of nutrition/electrolytes I will surely have on Saturday. If I weren't trying for the 4/5 I wouldn't have bothered signing up for a race the day after Yom Kippur, but there you have it. If I'm smart, I won't finish SI much under 2:10 or so but we'll see what actually happens.

After a rough start of feeling under the weather and not running yesterday, I had a nice easy 5 miler today. I was able to adjust my schedule for the rest of the week, and hopefully all will go according to plan.

The 5th Avenue Mile: mile long races are actually fun! (RR)

Background: I somehow managed to avoid doing any timed miles in PE class over the years, so I went into this race with no idea of what to expect. The fastest I had done a mile was at 7:43 during speed training. Based on my HM time, McMillan told me I would finish a mile in 7:37 or so. I didn't know how accurate predicting a mile time based on a HM time was, but I figured that I would be happy with anything below 7:45

Race Day: I had 11 miles on tap for today, so I figured that I would complete 3-4 before the race, and do the remainding mileage afterwards. It was very humid out, so after 3 miles I headed over to the race. I missed heat #1 (media people) but I got there in time to see the lone person in the wheelchair/handicycle division take off. Heat #3 lined up (8-14 year olds of both genders) and my heat got ready to go right behind them (15-29 year old females). As soon as the kids took off, we lined off in the starting area. It was one big corral, so I wasn't quite sure where to line up, so I got towards the back so that I wouldn't be trampled on.

Race: And we're off! The first few seconds were a bit cramped, but I quickly settled into a groove. But then disaster strikes - my left shoelace decided to come undone 100 meters into the race. . Since stopping wasn't an option, I kept going and hoped that I wouldn't trip. Since the field was spread out, no one was close enough to me to be tripped.

Running down 5th avenue was such a treat, and it was something that few New Yorkers ever get to do (without risking being run over)! I started off very strongly - about 1/4 of a mile in I was on course for a sub-7 minute mile. Then we hit a hill that lasted almost until the halfway point - the avenue never seemed this hilly before! I recovered quickly but I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep a sub-7 pace for the whole mile. Still, I gave it my all, and pushed as hard as I could to the finish. I crossed the line before the gun time said 7:15

Result: Official time was 7:04! Much better than I could have hoped for. My AG percentage was a 59.4% - my highest yet!

After my race was over, I ran a few miles and then came back to watch my friend compete. Overall, it was an amazing experience. I learned a few valuable lessons along the way:

1. A mile race can be at least as difficult as an HM to do correctly (if not more so!)
2. Retie the shoelaces before starting just in case
3. Warm-Up miles are crucial, but they become less effective when you have to stand in your heat for a long time

Unfortuantely I have no pictures of the actual race - I didn't take my phone with me. I just took one of me afterwards before I changed. If I get any brightroom pictures I will update. Thanks for reading!

Reflections on a Juggling Act

I have been very spoiled this summer. Since I was on vacation from school, I was able to increase my mileage and still get to bed early enough in order to get enough sleep at night. I was actually able to fit in a social life, and it was a very fun experience. I also played my instrument with my pops group a few times as well, and got a bit of practice time in.


However, all of that ended last week when I started school again. Getting enough sleep to wake up for morning runs between 4-8 miles during the week has been much more difficult now that I can't get to bed before 11pm at least two nights a week. In addition, I will be starting up Wind Ensemble next week, meaning that I will be out late three nights during the week.


This wasn't as much of an issue last year simply because as a newer runner, I wasn't as dedicated, and I did maybe 20 miles per week at most. Now, I am following a training plan for a half marathon in October that averages close to 30 miles per week, and it is much harder to make up runs if I miss it. Even without factoring in a social life, my schedule is looking pretty daunting, especially since both of my classes are reading and writing intensive.


So this brings me to the question of the day - have I bitten off more than I can chew? I pride myself on being the girl who can "do it all", but when is it time to say that something has to give? If it's too much, what has to give?

I'll have a lot to think about over the next couple of weeks, but I will do everything I can to keep all of the balls in the air. Hopefully my time management skills will be up to the task.

Which brings me to wonder - how does everyone else juggle all of the things going on in their lives?

The Best Laid Plans...

So, by this time tomorrow I had hoped to at least make, if not achieve, another sub-2 hour HM attempt. However, a certain someone named Irene had other plans.

So instead of a race report, I'll briefly discuss how my Cape Cod Half Marathon Training is going!

Three weeks have gone by so far, and already, I'm doing a better job training this time around. Not only have I hit my long runs on schedule, including a HM long run on Friday night to make up for the Bronx, but I have finally executed two tempo runs. I was supposed to do about 9mm and I did within the 8:50s across 3 miles with very little variation, so I was happy about that.

My speed work is also slowly progressing. I have only done one workout so far, and while I ended up taking my fast workouts too fast, it made feel better knowing that I could do my upcoming mile race at a sub-8 minute pace. Still, when I attempt my next speed workout next week, I'll try and reign it in a little. I've also been advised to vary the interval lengths a little bit, so I'll look into doing that as well.

Last weekend, I attended Long Training Run #2, which NYRR held in Central Park. I met up with Kathy and Wallis, and the three of us ran with Wallis' friend. The pacers we started out with went too fast, but on our second loop we had a pacer who stayed steadily at a 10:30 pace. I got 11 miles in successfully, and probably could have eked out another couple of miles had I wanted to.

On a different note, I discovered that doing a long run at night was more difficult for me than I thought it would be. Even though I completed the 13.1 miles in lieu of doing the now cancelled Bronx half, it was far more difficult to do so without either the race or company as a motivator. Still, the miles got done, and now I am watching the rain pour down in the city.

This represents a major mental shift to me - when I first started out back in November, I wouldn't have thought that missing a run was a major deal, but this week, I felt that missing my long run was simply not an option, so I did what I needed to do to ensure it didn't happen, even if it meant running at a time that was not ideal to me. I guess I've finally become an addict :P

I'm probably going to order a couple of running books to read - I'm thinking of getting the Pfitz book and the Glover book - I've heard great reviews from several running friends and I know I still have a great deal to learn.

Next week is a cut-back week for me, so I look forward to getting some quality cross training in before NYSC shuts down the pool for its annual cleaning. I hope the hurricane doesn't do too much damage this weekend!

The Queens Half Marathon: Around the World & Through the Maze

This past Saturday, I ran the Queens Half Marathon in Flushing Meadow Park, and I had a completely different experience than I had for the Brooklyn Half. If you look at finish times alone, you would think that Brooklyn went better for me since I got a 2:05 in Queens and a 2:02 in Brooklyn. However, the times don't tell the whole story.

I went to number pick-up Thursday, and ran into Amy as I was coming down the stairs, and we talked about our goals for Queens. In my head, I still had the unrealistic goal of doing a sub-2 half, even knowing that it would be an impossibility in the heat, but I figured that a girl could dream. My thought was that if I found myself doing 9mm at the beginning, and felt ok, that I would hold on to that as long as possible.

I had Rachel over Friday night and we grabbed Italian, along with bagels for the next morning. The bagel place had some amazing looking frozen hot chocolates, and we decided then and there that those would be our reward for finishing tomorrow. After getting to sleep by 9:30pm or so, I woke up before 5am to shower. I had never tried that before, but I figured it would wake me up. It wasn't completely successful but it was a start. We made sure to pack our waters, fuel, etc, and then we picked up our friend Wallis in a cab. Of course, out of all the cab drivers in NYC, we got the one driver who didn't know his way around Queens.

Nevertheless, we arrived at the start at around 6:20, dropped off the baggage and used the porta-potty before splitting up into our corrals. To my pleasant surprise, I saw someone I had paced with in Van Cortlandt park, so we decided to run together at least in the beginning. After the national anthem, there was a 15 minute delay, but then we finally got to start the HM.

The course looked very confusing on paper, but on the ground, it was very easy to know where you were going. Besides, not being in the front of the pack certainly helped, but the course marshals were very good at directing everyone. I wasn't necessarily sure where I was, and there were a few points early on when we were teased with the higher mile markers, but overall, I enjoyed the course. It was flat for the most part, and had this race been held in April, then it would have been a great opportunity for most people to PR.

According to NYRR, the temperature was 77 degrees with 60 percent humidity. I decided to try and not look at my watch for the first mile to see where my pace naturally fell. Of course, I still looked at the watch anyway, but I didn't let it affect my pace. When it beeped (as usual, ahead of the actual mile marker), I noticed it said 9:40 (the first mile would actually take 9:50. It was at that moment I realized that a sub-2 half was NOT happening. I was finally able to let that delusion go.

Unfortunately, I lost my friend to the porta-potty, so I continued on alone. I remember passing the zoo at some point, and I heard an elephant roaring in the background. Sometime during mile 5, I looked up to see faster runners going towards me - we hit an out and back loop and the runners coming back were wearing red and yellow bibs for the most part. I kind of glanced over to see whether I knew any of the faster crowd, and I didn't, but I still cheered them on. I didn't realize it at the time, but my friend from Wind Ensemble saw me running, and she was about 15 minutes ahead of me overall. As I was running back, I saw my friend again, and she waved to me, but that was the last time I saw her. Apparently Lady Gaga was watching her friend somewhere around the mile 9 mark, but even if I had known in advance, I might have not seen her. Knowing that she was watching us run is still pretty cool.

After an hour of running, I took three shot bloks. Two of them were the margarita flavored ones with extra sodium - they all would have been that flavor, but I ran out and they didn't have any more at the Jack Rabbit store. I had a 22 ounce handheld with me, and the misting stations on the course were very effective in keeping my body temperature down. I had not planned to stop at any water stations to save time, but sometime in between the mile 7 and 8 marker, I realized that I was running low. I decided to keep a little in the tank in case I really needed it between water stations. I ended up walking through the water stations for about 10 seconds - just long enough to pick up a water, drink most of it, then dump the rest on my head. I barely lost any time on it, and I think it was a good strategy.

As I got closer to the finish, I realized that a sub-2:05 finish was a possibility, so I gunned the last mile or so as fast as possible. Alas, I missed it only by a few seconds and got an official time of 2:05:02. Although this time was slower than my Brooklyn time, there were several things that I did this time around that I didn't do during Brooklyn that probably cost me my sub-2 finish a couple of months ago
1) Handheld water bottle - did not have one for Brooklyn
2) Race nutrition - I didn't have any nutrition during the Brooklyn half other than water. The shot bloks definitely made a difference in terms of energy levels
3) Good pacing - if you compare the Garmin Splits between Queens and Brooklyn, it is obvious that the Queens splits were far more even. I clearly went out too fast for Brooklyn (something I wouldn't admit back then), and then lack of nutrition ensured that I bonked around mile 10.
4) Better training - I followed a Smart Coach plan, and although I didn't do the amount of speedwork that I should have done due to the extreme heat, I felt that this plan played a role in my improvement.

So that's why I felt I did a better job in Queens even though my time was ultimately not as good. After the race, I took a couple of more shot bloks, had a piece of fruit, and waited for my friends to come along. I had been worried about Rachel since she had been under the weather, but she and Wallis finished, and Amy finished around the same time as they did. The four of us navigated the subway system - which is always SO fun during the weekend, and once we got back, Rachel and I rewarded ourselves with our promised frozen hot chocolates.

There is still plenty of room for improvement
1) Better eating habits - now that I have a roommate who cooks, I might be able to pool in with her for healthier foods and groceries. It's hard to eat healthy when I don't have time to gocery shop, especially during the school year.
2) Body glide - I managed to notice that my thighs were red during the race and prevented further damage by pulling down my shorts, but I should start incorporating that.
3) More speedwork /tempo runs

Since I'm on vacation in Cape Cod, I have a light week of running, and am focusing more on biking, but next week, I will start a 12-week training program for the Cape Cod Half Marathon on October 29th. I'm gunning for sub-2 again. Although I know it will eventually happen, I hope that it happens in 2011. Only time will tell!


Wallis, Rachel and I at the finish