NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Manhattan

Forums

Forum guidelines BT super discount

Updated posts

My threads
No new posts

My favorite threads

General Discussion

Race Reports! » NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Manhattan

Rss Feed

Moderators: k9car363, alicefoeller

of 2

NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Manhattan - RunHalf Marathon

View Member's Race Log View other race reports

New York, New York
United States
New York Road Runners
14F / -10C
Sunny

Total Time = 2h 43m 21s
Overall Rank = 4451/4587
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 135/150

Pre-race routine:

My pre-race routine started Friday when I took the train to NYC! Fellow BT'r Kristin (LazyMarathoner) offered to let me stay at her new place in Broolyn! We went out Friday night, hung out and even managed to get in a little swim on Saturday.

The night before the race K and I went to the most amazing place to do some carb loading. Had a couple of beers, split a serving of wine and had the best pizza in NYC!

We got back to her place and figured out the clothing strategy for the run - we had gotten a pretty good taste of the cold while we were walking around during the day and especially while waiting for pizza, so we knew it was going to be COLD!!!

Got the clothes thing figured out, blew up my air mattress and went to bed. I fell alseep right away and then woke up at 2:30 and sort of tossed and turned from then on - didn't sleep real well. -

We got up a 6 had an english muffin with peanut butter grab a couple of gus, my bags and hopped in the car.

Dropped my luggage off at K's old apt and took the train to Central Park - it wsa fun because we ran into quite a few other crazy people headed to do the same thing we were :)

Event warmup:

Event Warmup - now that's an interseting notion - it was 14 degrees when we started the race! Yep, there was no warmup to speak of. We stayed in the subway entrance as long as we possibly could to try and stay somewhat warm.

Walked to race start - I now know what nearly 5,000 crazy people look like! Including one individual in particular, he was dressed in a lighthouse costume - no, that's not the crazy part, he had SHORTS on!!!! Did I mention it was 14 degrees?

The start of the race looked like it went on forever - of course based on my time we headed to the very last section for starters.

Run

2h 43m 21s
13.1 miles
12m 28s min/mile

Comments:

Didn't fill out the Keeping cool choice, really wasn't an issue ;)

Not only did K let me stay at her place, she also paced me, which was awesome.

We ran the first mile, then generally did a 4:00/1:00 run/walk interval through the fifth mile, then did 3:00/1:00 and eventually 2:00/2:00. We walked up some hills and ran down every hill ;) so the intervals probably aren't exact, but close enough. If I remember right K said we did the first mile in 10:49, which is really good for me.

We kapt a very steady pace and really came in about the time we expected to. I was shooting for 2:50 and was pleased with a 2:43:21. I really think that if the temps had been eve 10 degrees warmer, the time would have been even a little faster than that.

It was hard to walk very fast because our legs felt frozen! My butt cheeks were numb!

To give you an idea of how cold it was - my hair froze! Yep - looked like i had ice sickel pig tails!

The water cups were FROZEN to the tables at the water stations - at the beginning of the race, there was just a thin film of ice on top of the water. By the end of the race, the water in the cup was almost frozen solid - you had to squeeze the cup hard to break the cube and get some actual water.

Since we were at the BOP most of the people I saw were passing me as they were running to get to someplace warm. We were amazed at the number of people that were in shorts and running jerseys - nuts I tell you! nuts!

It was awesome to have K pacing me so I didn't have to worry about the time and I could relax while running. Her company and lively conversation kept my mind off of things like how far we'd gone, in fact i missed quite a few mile markers and it was like wow, we've come that far! cool!

I thought a lot about all the BT'rs that have been encouraging me as I prepared for this milestone - thanks to all you of you! I couldn't have done it without you!

What would you do differently?:

from a run perspective nothing - it was my first 1/2 mary, i trained smart and hard and i achieved the goal i was hoping for

in weather this cold I would have brought a coat to NYC ;)

I also would have brought something to change into right after the race

Post race

Warm down:

We met up with another BT'r, Rudy (Rudedog55) after the race - he was nice enough to come and brave the cold temps to meet K and me.

We took the train to a breakfast place, ate an enormous breakfast and tried to warm up -

It was a fun morning and it was great to meet Rudy!

What limited your ability to perform faster:

the cold

limited experience in running

Last updated: 2008-12-07 12:00 AM

Running
02:43:21 \| 13.1 miles \| 12m 28s min/mile
Age Group:	135/150
Overall:	4451/4587
Performance:
Course:	The course was 2 loops and a bit around Central Park. It was a fairly hilly course, not an easy one at least not for me.
Keeping cool		Drinking	Just right