the medal

Here is the medal from NYC half.

Thanks for Mike for the photo.

NYC Half Marathon_details

I made a (Freudian) slip and posted my Half Marathon time as 1:23 whereas my real time was 1:25. That pretty much summarizes my race experience. I was hoping I would finish close to 1:23, which is the qualifying time for NYC marathon, but in my mind, I knew the hills of the Central Park and my fitness would not make a good combination to achieve this goal. I decided to go for it anyway.

Things were going well until mile 9 of the 13.1-mile race. I was on track with my race pace of about 6:20, and I even had a few seconds in the "bank" to allow for a few seconds pace near the end. On mile 9, the water station was too close to the mile marker, so I missed it and didnt' realize that my pace slowed down by 10 seconds. So I ran on the same slowed pace for the 10th mile. When I looked at the sum of two miles, I realized that I have lost 20 seconds. That meant all the seconds in the "bank" were spent and I now owed the clock about 10 seconds. This was not something that I was ready do deal with.

From that point on, I almost gave up on my race time. I realized that I am not going to be able to run a sub-1:23 half, so I decided to settle in an easy pace and don't kill myself. The result was a much slower last two miles of the race.

I guess given where I am with my training, the temperature and humidity, and the hills, I should be happy about the race. I am not unhappy, but I want to run another sub-1:23 this year.

We shall see.

NYC Half Marathon

Finish time: 1:23:53 (correction: 1:25:53)!

Overall place: 165

Details to follow.

Night before NYC Half Marathon

Day and week mileage:
Monday: 15 miles
Tuesday: 8.5 miles

Wednesday: 10 miles

Thursday: 6 miles

Friday: 3 miles

Week so far: 41.5

On Wednesday, I ran with the Y run club for 6 miles of conversational pace. Added to that was 2 miles of warm-up run from home to park, and 2 miles of ran with Mike after the run.

On thursday, I ran on East Side track for the first time doing 1K repeats. It is a very nice track to run on.

Friday was an easy day. I didn't want to run long or hard and wanted to taper for NYC half marathon.

Today I didn't run at all. Tried to stay hydrated and had a good pasta dinner. The temperature is going to be in the high-70s early morning, but the problem is the humidity. I am hoping to replicate my time from Shamrock Half Marathon. That would be a sub 1:23 (pace of 6:20), the qualifying time for New York Marathon. The difference between Shamrock course and NYC half is the big hills of Central Park, and the brutal weather.

Mike has told me there is a group of runners from Nike who are shooting for the same time. If I feel good in the morning, I am going to give 1:23 a decent shot and see what happens.

There is something especial about NYC Half Marathon for me. I have run in every year of this race since its inception in 2007. That year, I ran a 1:45, and next year in 2008 I ran a 1:40. That was the year that Denie out ran me in Times Square.

Let's hope for a good race for all of the Y RRC team.

Third Ave Bridge getting in Manhattan from the Bronx

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BxM run

Day and week mileage:
Monday: 15 miles
Tuesday: 8.5 miles
Week so far: 23.5

Today I ran my own version of BxM run from Pelham Parkway. Most of the run was along Westchester Road. I took the Third Ave Bridge to get into Manhattan (photo below, and above). The run took about 1:03 hour of run time, but I had to stop many times to get water or to find my bearings. It was very hot at 5 pm, and the sun was in my face. Running from work to home, though, is now a new route along with the usual Central Park.

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My version of BxM run

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BxM Run

Call me crazy, but I am going to run to work one of these days. Maybe tomorrow morning, if I can get up early enough to get ready and have enough margin to get lost in the Bronx. I need to put in my weekly long run every week.

The reason for this madness is I saw an article on an 18-mile run over many bridges in the Bronx and Manhattan. Seems you don't have to be crazy to attempt running between these two boroughs.

5-mile team championships

Today, I broke the 6-minute pace in the 5-mile race. Thank to Mike and Bruno for running ahead of me and keeping me motivated to not stop.

Both the men and women teams of WSY did great today. WSY is formidable!

Here are my splits:

5:43, 5:51, 6:05, 6:22 (damn you Cat Hill!), 5:54

total time: 29:55

Avg pace: 5:59

Funny how my pace varies so erratically! I have to learn to run more consistently.

Next week is NYC half marathon. Get ready to run fast.

Weekend runs

Last weekend, I ran the Long Training Run, 20 miles, at a pace of 7:30. It left me tired but confident that with good training I can run a good marathon in November.

Tomorrow is the team championships race. We are fielding two full teams (men and women) and hope to improve our standing. We have terrifying black and white race singlets.