I signed up for a 2 hour pace group. Unfortunately the group was in the wave ahead of me and I never caught up to them. I was hungry before the start as the second bag of bagels I was going to eat from this morning had gotten completely molded. I had been looking for a convenience store pre race to grab something else to eat but couldn't find anything open at that hour of the morning. So about 20 minutes before the start I had a gu while in the corral.

Lined up in the front of the wave with the plan to hang on the heels of the 2 hour pace group. Never caught them, their wave went out about 3 minutes before mine and that was just enough of a lead to hold me back. I did see Bart Yasso from Runner's World while in the corral which was cool.

Most of the race I averaged 9:20 pace. Hit around 5 miles and we headed into Bryant Park. Nothing but up and down the hills for the next 4 miles. When we FINALLY got out of the park my HR was over 170 which is a whole lot higher than I have been running in training. Lungs on fire. My pace slowed through there.....in part from the hills and in part from equipment malfunction. The ipod went to slower music and it was hard to get from my pocket to reset it. I was also trying to get another gu out and had a hard time reading into my jersey pockets. Anyway, I hit the 10K at about 58 minutes which is slower than I had anticipated but I thought I might be able to make up the time after I got out of the hills.
I was heading out of Bryant Park as Kristen was headed in. Cheered each other on. Counting down the mile markers, planned on turning up the speed with about 5K to go.
Another malfunction with the ipod. I had finally fished it out of the pocket to change the music to faster tempo and the ear bud wire was twisted up in the race / fuel belts so it didn't go in the pocket again. Had to set it on the belt line and hope it would stay. Gloves came off and got tucked in the belt too.
Got to about 11 miles and the course started to turn all over the place. They changed the finish since I last ran this race. Mile 12 and I knew at 1:56 the sub 2 was definitely out of the window. Last mile or so was straight down a hard hill. My calves and feet were cramping big time. It was a pretty finish area on Brown Island, but really we finish going down this hard hill and have to walk back UP same hill to get to dry bags and parking?

More hill work

Make sure the food I intend to eat for breakfast is still in edible condition prior to race morning!!

Walked down the rest of the hill. Find Jen, eat a little banana and another bagel. Walk to my car. Panic cause I can't find my car key and I don't know the combination lock (in my long sports bra pocket tucked there cause I was afraid that it might come out from the jersey pockets when I went in for the gu/ ipod.
Got coffee and waited for Kristen so we could do lunch at Cap Ali House.


Hills
Poor sleep
Not quite enough breakfast


I had booked a massage post race several months ago. Thankful I did. Crystal is an angel and gave me an extra 15 minutes on the legs.