Race Report: NYC Half Marathon

As we were standing in the race corrals early Sunday morning, I remarked to my friends, “You know, I have a good feeling about this race.”

And why not? I’d accomplished all my training goals (which I’ve painstakingly laid out for you in this blog, whether you liked it or not) over the past ten weeks. The weather was a wonderful 70 degrees F and only 60% humidity — making it the only day with decent running weather in NYC for the past month. And, the excitement of 10,000 runners all in one place was palpable and infectious.

And guess what? My instincts were right! I set a personal record by beating my fastest half marathon time (set in April 2004) by four seconds, with a 2:13:06 finish time and an average pace of 10:09 per mile (hey, I never claimed to be speedy).

We arrived at Central Park a little after 5:30am, just as the sun was beginning to rise, and already there were thousands of runners milling around. We checked our bags, stretched, ate our final energy bars and stood in line for the toilets as we awaited the 7:00am start time. (As a side note: I enjoy the time before the race, seeing how many different pre-race rituals people have, especially for those longer distances where runners are likely to have invested a lot more time and energy in their preparation.)

The first seven miles of the course were in Central Park (you can see a complete map of the course here), which was comforting in its familiarity — there isn’t a hill or incline in that loop that every New York runner hasn’t conquered a hundred times before. And so we pushed through those miles and dodged the crowds (Mile 1=10:03, Mile 2=11:06; Mile 3=9:36; Mile 4=10:02; Mile 5=10:26; Mile 6=10:15; Mile 7=9:50), so the real fun could begin.

After the “gently sloping hills” of the park, I felt my adrenalin surge as we turned the corner and ran straight down 7th Avenue towards Times Square. Any New Yorker can tell you that on any other day, it is nearly impossible to even walk in Times Square for all the gawking tourists standing about. The thrill of actually running through it with reckless abandon defies description and was well worth the ten weeks of training for the privilege. And so Miles 8 and 9 felt like I was running on clouds (Mile 8=10:29, Mile 9=10:09).

I was still coasting on that high when we hit the West Side Highway (or maybe it was just the energy surge from the packet of Gu I ingested at Mile 8) for the final straight and flat miles of the course down towards Battery Park (Mile 10=10:08; Mile 11=10:11).

Somewhere around Mile 11, the race began to take its toll — my energy was lagging, and I felt soreness in my knees, along with a deep desire to be finished. Luckily, instead of slowing me down, it motivated me to push harder. Those last two miles were run on sheer force of will, which I’m happy to report, enabled me to speed by many of my fellow runners as I put my head down and just ran for the finish line (Mile 12=10:03; Mile 13=9:44).

I had two goals as I trained for this race: (1) beat my personal record for the distance; and (2) feel good while doing it. After last week’s miserable 11 mile run in 80% humidity, I altered my goals a bit and decided that I could be satisfied with achieving just goal 2, if it came down to it. As I write this, I’m elated that I was able to accomplish both goals, and deeply satisfied that I had trained well enough to push through even when I had nothing left. If I do say so myself, “Yay me!”

The rest of yesterday was spent lounging, going out for brunch, talking to mein Schatz, having a massage, and enjoying a post-race dinner with friends. I collapsed into bed around 9pm and slept soundly until 7am this morning.

This post wouldn’t be complete without giving thanks to you all for all your support and encouragement. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you (and the weekly accountability). And special thanks to Suzanne and Cari, who pulled me along and deserve lots of congratulations on a race well run!

On on!

August 3, 2007

Grateful Friday

Today, I am especially grateful for the air conditioners we inherited from Lynne three years ago. Enough said.
Since I finished off my yogurt earlier in the week, and have now just burnt the last piece bread in the house in the toaster, I am glad that I’ll be able to swing by the newly opened bagel place on my way to the train.
Little nephew smooches during Skype webcam calls are the best.
Thank goodness Suzanne and I have generous uptown friends, who will make it much easier for us to get to the uptown race start by 6am Sunday morning.
And last, but not least, I’m glad that my training in the summer heat is officially over. We did our last run this morning, and I am ready to take on the NYC Half Marathon this weekend!

July 29, 2007

Week Ten

I’m a little too worn out after today’s hot and humid 11-mile run to write very coherently about it. Suffice it to say, we all finished, but that’s about it. I was soaked straight through with sweat. It’s quite rare that my entire shirt is drenched, but today was one of those days of 80% humidity.

We started in Battery Park and ran north along the West Side of Manhattan (you can check out a map of the route here). Suzanne and I dropped Cari off at 116th Street, where Cari reached her 11-mile mark because she ran down from the West Village to meet us to begin with. Suz and I kept right on going up to the George Washington Bridge at 181st Street. We stretched out near the Little Red Light House and then walked up to street level, washed the salt from our faces in the restroom at Starbucks, and bought some fortification for the train ride home at Jin’s Suprette, my favorite bodega while I was in grad school. It was kind of neat to end up in my old neighborhood and pass through my old running haunts.

Now I am tired and enjoying lazing about while it storms outside. My training over the past week went well: a 45-minute tempo run, a 4.5-mile run in the park, and then a 3-mile run. This coming week, I’ll keep the runs short, make sure I get lots of rest and eat lots of healthy food, and then I should be well-prepared for the race on August 5th!

July 28, 2007

Eight is Enough?

I was tagged by the fabulous Frida to come up with eight things you might not know about me. You would think that since I played along with this sometime back (here), I wouldn’t be able to come up with eight more. But guess what? I love to talk about myself, so here you go! (And feel free to play along with me in the comments section.)

Generally, I’m not one to idolize rock stars or movie stars. It’s just not what I do. With the exception, ahem, of Ben Harper. If you’ve ever heard me wax poetic about his music, an incredible combination of highly skilled musical ability and social messages, you’ve seen me get as close to giddy and giggly as I get. And there’s more of that to come after I report back from his Radio City Music Hall show on September 15th. My heart is racing with excitement even as I write this!
I’ve never had a manicure or pedicure. Even though I’ve lived above a salon for three years. I’m afraid they will run away screaming once they see my runner’s feet full of callouses. And I’m secretly afraid that I won’t be able to run anymore if they remove the callouses!
When I was living in Uganda, we bought a turkey for American Thanksgiving. A live turkey, who was mean and stubborn and lived in our compound for awhile. I remember coming home late one night with some of my other housemates, and being petrified that the turkey would attack us in the pitch-black darkness (there was no electricity that night because of “load-sharing,” meaning there was only enough electricity to power up half of the city at a time, so you had to take turns). We slowly opened up the gate and ran quickly into the house, slamming the door behind us. Little did we know, the turkey was actually being housed in one of the kitchen cabinets overnight because being in enclosed spaces make them tame and sleepy.
My parents met each other in Seattle, but by coincidence, both of their families hail from Butte, Montana. We spent many summers as a family in Butte and other parts of Western Montana, and I have wonderful memories from there and it remains close to my heart, even though I haven’t been back in almost 10 years.
I traveled down to D.C. on April 25, 2004 for the March for Women’s Lives to join a million other marchers, and I will never forget the power of that day.
I can’t dance, but if I could, I would make dance videos in front of famous monuments like Davey Dance. Especially if people would clear out a dance space for me like they did for him at the Brandenburg Gate.
When I lived in Seattle, my apartment was at the bottom of the seriously steep Queen Anne Hill. Whenever I would go on a first or second date (which was quite often in those days), I would suggest walking up Queen Anne to Kerry Park to check out the beautiful scenic views of downtown and Puget Sound. Sounds pretty romantic, right? But it was also my devious method of separating the wheat from the chaff. If he was huffing and puffing and complaining all the way up, that was usually the end of that. On the other hand, if he powered up the hill along with me, I could tell he was worth investing a few more dates in!
I’m going to see Sonic Yout h tonight perform their Daydream Nation album in it’s entirety at the McCarren Park Pool. Shhh..don’t tell anyone that I’ve never actually listened to the album before.