NYRR Half-Marathon | 13.1 Miles | Central Park
I didn't really know what to expect in my first half-marathon race, and had no idea what pace I should run. When I started training at the end of November, my goal was to break 1:23:00 (6:20/mile), but it had become clear that there was no way that was going to happen for this race. I was just as likely to set a new world record, so I decided that I would take this race as a training run - an opportunity to set a benchmark for myself, hopefully without blowing up. I picked 7:30/mile as my pace for the first mile or two and decided to reassess the situation after that.
Unfortunately, because I showed up pretty late as I didn't want to be standing around in the cold, I ended up getting stuck near the back of the corral and found myself "running" with the 10:00/mile pacers. Not ideal when there are 5,000 other runners and no where to pass except outside the race course (and on the outside of all the turns). I'm not sure how much distance it added to my run, but I was having too much fun passing people to really notice. 7:30s felt really easy - thanks to training runs with Tommy - I decided to try and negative split each mile to the end, really dropping the hammer after mile 7. Looking back on my splits, that's not exactly what happened, but the second half of my race was faster than the first half so overall I'm very satisfied. I'm really looking forward to the NYC Half-Marathon in March.
Distance: 13.1 Miles, 21.1 Kilometers
Date/Time: Jan. 24, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
Location: Central Park, NYC
Weather: 37 deg., 76% humidity, wind 5 mph.
Finish Time: 1:34:33
Pace/Mile: 7:13
Overall Place: 607
Gender Place: 539
Age Place: 110
I ran with RunKeeper, but the pacing and distance was a bit off. Still, it give a general overview of elevation and pacing changes throughout the race. For details, click on the link in the upper left hand corner:
Full Throttle was well represented by Charles Howe, Colin Stewart, and Maria Mahn. Unfortunately, I didn't know anyone else was racing until after checking the results and searching for Full Throttle Endurance Racing on NYRR's results site. Hopefully, they'll share their race experience on this blog or in the comments section below.
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Ran the Manhattan Half today too.. I ran with my 23 yo daughter.. her first. It was a wonderful experience to share. It was all about staying together and finishing strong. She did a great job! It was a great day, and the weather was perfect. We started near the back of the pack too... It took 5 minutes to cross the start.. but for me.. it was just fine... Would like to break 2 hours some time this year.. 2 loops of Central Park is humbling.. even after 20 odd years of running it.
ReplyDeleteGreat Job Bobby and Stasi. Bobby, I was one of the people you were passing.
ReplyDeleteI used that as a training run as well. After a 50 miles bike on Saturday, those CP hills were not my friend. Overall, I'm happy to be getting in that kind of mileage this early in the season.