Grete's Great Gallop Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

My chute, (9m/m) was defnitiely the most crowded. It took a good 3-4 minutes to reach the start line, much of it walking.
I started at about an 8:40 pace, and held it for about 3-4 miles, which was a little faster than I needed to break 2 hours. I had set the "virtual partner" on my garmin to 2 hours, and so I kept an eye on him. I wasn't leaving him in the dust, but I was making steady progress.
The first lap was pretty uneventful. Passed some people, got passed by a few people. I had a really tough time finding any rabbits. Just when I found someone who kept me on a good pace, they'd decide to walk a water station or, in a couple of cases, decided to pull off the course entirely. Water stations are something I've been working to get better at, and I was happy with how they went. For the first few, I got water only, one to drink, one on my head, then started alternating water and Gatorade Endurance. The water on my head, though, led to water in my shoes.
Took my gel w/caffeine at mile 8, although I was feeling pretty good still. Splits were still in the 8:40-9:00 range, depending on the hills.
Around mile 10, my left knee started to feel sore, and I started getting a blister on my left foot, since my sock was soaked from all the water. My mile 11 split was my slowest, as I tried to back off the pace a little (9:40), but I kept running, ven through the water stations.
Eventually I got to a point where, much as it hurt, I figured it probably wasn't getting any worse, and so I pushed it aside and tried to pick up the pace as much as I could. My virtual partner, who had, at one point, been .35 miles behind me, had crept up to about .24, and I knew that I was losing ground at my slower pace. Lap 12 was 8:52.
I really didn't have much left at the end of this race. In every race I've ever done, I always had a strong finishing kick, but not this time.There's an uphill climb to the finish, which wasn't much fun. I picked up my pace as much as I could, but only managed a slow run (8:18) for the last section. I finished strong, though, and crossed the line running, at least.

This was the furthest I've ever run, even in training. I'm happy to just have finished under my two-hour goal.

Saw my family just past the finish chute. My son was still wearing his number and his ribbon from the kids race. I was much more interested in hearing about his race than in thinking about how I felt. I had some water, a few cups of Gatorade E, and a smoked salmon bagel at the food tent, then went home.


Training, experience. This is my first Half-mary, and the furthest I've ever run, even in training. The blister and knee didn't help, and I'll have to figure something out for my HIM's.


This is a terrific event--all of the NYRR races are, in my (limited) experience. Good crowd, fun course. I thought it was weird that the 1-mile race started 15 minutes before the half-mary, but other than that, I thought it was really well run. Sorry I missed the Norweigian Pop Songstress....