Sunday, August 5, 2007

Nike NYC Half-Marathon, done!

90 Days until the Marathon
Today's weather: 71º
Today's humidity: 61%

This is the best race ever! Ever! No, I didn't do a personal best, but I was still under 3 hours so I'm happy about that. I love this race. Forget the fact that I had to wake up at 3:30am to get out to the park on time. Forget the fact that I only had about 5 hours sleep. Nothing beat the end of the Central Park loop at mile 7 when the entire 7th Avenue opened up and step by step, Times Square presented itself. Oh wait, one thing did: Crossing the finish line!

My official time was 2:53:49 with an average pace of 13:16. I took it slow as I went into it thinking of the race as another long training run. Also my knees were bothering me a bit still from Thursday's ball games, so I just ran conservatively. Better to finish later than to blow my knee out.

Let's see if I can recall the miles:

Mile 1: It was a bit of a challenge to get adjusted. Running in a field of 14,000 is interesting and I focused on going slow trying not to pay attention to others who seemingly bolted out ahead. (I knew I'd catch and surpass some of them later, hehe.)

Mile 2: Fully warmed up, but felt my knee nag a bit. Took a Tylenol and chewed some Gu. I think I was getting hungry at this point since by this time it's been almost 4 hours since I've eaten.

Mile 3-4: Solid miles. I attacked those hills like no one's business. So proud that I didn't stop! Found someone about my pace and kept an eye on her. (Harlem Hills, you ain't got nothin' on me!)

Mile 5-6: I hit my stride and felt like I was floating along. (Chanted: 10K, halfway. Gonna stop? No way!)

Mile 7: Left knee and hip nagging me. Took a second Tylenol and chugged some Gatorade.

Mile 8: Floated along thanks to the crowds at Times Square. This was my favorite mile. (I can't believe I'm running in the middle of the street!)

Mile 9: Knee felt funny so I walked an avenue and resumed running once I turned into the West Side Highway. Hit another milestone as this was the longest distance I've covered without walking. (Ok, where the heck were the cooling stations that was on the map?!)

Mile 10: Fading a bit. The sun was beaming hot all that Gatorade isn't sitting right in my stomach.

Mile 11: Struggled a bit to focus. Walked a bit.

Mile 12-13: I did the run/speed walk routine. (One mile to go! One mile to go! Almost there! Almost there!)

800-400 m to go: Picked up my speed, focused on the finish line and bolted the rest of the way!

My split times:
5k: 52:03
10k: 1:33:06
15k: 2:14:22
20k: 2:57:56

I can't begin to tell you how psyched I was to finish! Such an awesome race! And another long run is in the bag! Go me!

5 comments:

Nicole said...

Congrats on your half-marathon!
Running down Times Square sounds like so much fun. :)

Susan said...

Lisa,

That is AWESOME!!!!! Congrats. I felt like I was there as I read your report. You give me hope for my October 13th half-marathon training run!

Susan

Amy@RunnersLounge said...

Way to go! Your excitement is so clear in this post. I love half marathons - they are a good amount of the thrill with half of the work.
Amy
http://blog.runnerslounge.com

MorseyRuns said...

Congratulations! What a great run- so sensible with your knee too.

CewTwo said...

Lisa, I did the very same thing. I found another in the crowd that pretty much matched my pace. I locked onto that person until we entered a long downhill stretch. They poured it on, but I thought it was too early.

Eventually, a lady and I matched pace for 3/4 of the race. It was in the last half mile that I found some inner strength and pulled out ahead going for it.

Isn't it cool how some runs are so very interesting? I did not have Times Square in my run, but I did have a roaring mountain stream right next to the road surface we were running on. It was kind of cool to watch as the entire group of runners made their way to a certain side of the road when something scenic presented itself. That was true of the people that put a water sprinkler near the road so runners could run through it should they elect to. Yep! I elected to!

Charlie