NYC Half Marathon

Wow. That's about all I have to say. Woke up at 3:10am, saw a guy get the crap beaten out of him on the 6 train(!!!), met up with the SUPER sweet Lynda, and ran an amazing race. I gave it 100% effort, and set a PR by 1 minute! I really thought that waking up so early with only 4 or 5 hours of sleep was going to be a major factor, but I don't think it mattered at all.

Miles 1-3 were really a warm up for me, but my legs felt really, really fresh and ready to go. I'll ignore the fact that there was NO water at mile 1.5, because I had brought my own bottle, which was awesome to have/refill during the race. I felt pretty great 4-6, I killed those hills and made them my bitch! Took a GU at 4.5. Between 6 - 8 I was starting to feel sore. I was wearing one of those knee straps for "jumpers knee" and honestly, my knee didn't hurt for one second during the race. But my hamstrings were starting to get sore, and the arches of my feet were starting to hurt.

Finally, out of the park, running down 7th ave I got a huge energy burst. I'm sure also knowing that I was halfway done was a nice incentive! Running through Times Square was great, and the crowd was really great too. We turned down 44th I think, and the whole way down to the west side was downhill!!! After running through all those hills in the park I felt like I was flying. I took another GU (with caffeine) at 8.5. I actually felt great until 11 or so...my hamstrings were really tight, and I kept trying to tell myself to ignore the discomfort, ignore the pain....there's nothing wrong you just need to keep pushing and keep going. At a few points around this time I saw people sidelined with pain, and actually screaming in agony. It was definitely sobering to see, but made me appreciate how I was doing even more. I think also around 11.5 I realized I'm done with Halfs for a little while...I think for me it's really a great distance to race, but after racing two in just over two months....I'm done...for now.

I definitely took walking breaks, but they were limited to 60-90 seconds, and I actually stopped around 11 to stretch my legs, and walked around 12.5 for a minute because I was pushing that last mile really hard. (According to my Garmin I ran mile 13 in 10:13, but it also claims I ran the half in 2:24)

When I was close enough to see the clock I was within (what I thought) seconds of making/breaking my goal of beating my BK Half time...The clock said 2:36:-- and I knew we had started at least 10:30, so some quick math said I needed to get my ass over that finish line FAST..and if my math is correct, if I complete the last .7 mile in 7:04, which means I averaged a 10:05 min/mile, so clearly I had some gas in reserve, and I was going to take that PR.

So, I gave it 100%, and I am really happy. Don't get me wrong, I did have some tough moments towards the end of the race, but overall, I felt really great and really prepared mentally and physically.

Thank you so much for all your well wishes, it means a lot!

Splits!
5K - 0:34:55
10K - 1:09:19 (+34:24)
15K - 1:44:02 (+34:43)
20K - 2:18:17 (+32:15) (Woah!!)
13.1 - 2:25:21 (+07:04)

PACE - 11:06

I also got my first medal today!! So amazing.