I still have a lot of catching up to do, and that will come slowly over time. I thought I would throw up a quick post on our most recent trip to New York, where I ran the NYC Half Marathon. Funny thing was - I wasn't planning on running a half marathon this soon. The original plan had been to work up towards a June race, but that all got thrown out the window when I won the lottery for this race. Not that I'm complaining - Justine and I both love NYC, and any excuse to head there works for me.
So all winter I spent a lot of time training, and I think I am in some of the best shape I've been in, in a long time. The training went well, and I was feeling pretty confident about my chances. I knew I would finish - the question was how fast?
At the finish line!
The race itself is a really nice one - Central Park, Times Square (only one of two days all year that Times Square is shut down. You know the other...), along the river, past the new World Trade Center and finishes in Battery Park. Here's the map:
It had started raining on Saturday, which was a bit concerning, but it stopped overnight, and the temperature was about perfect. The race start time was at 7:45, with the pros going off at 7:30. I was in Wave 2, and there were almost 20,000 people in the race. Not as big as the marathon, but still a pretty huge event.
My starting corral on race day.
I was there a bit early, and had to got through metal detectors to get to the race start area. I guess this is the result of the Boston Marathon bombing. A bit ridiculous really, but I had lots of time so it wasn't an issue. I wandered around as the sun came up, trying to keep warm. I did some stretching and loosened up, and did a bit of running to get ready. Before too long the time was come, and the pros were off!
Wave 1 start corral
Soon it was our time, and the gun went off and we were on our way. We started north through Central Park, and within the first mile there was an accident. I have no idea what happened, but there was a guy lying on the ground, bleeding badly where it looked like he must have hit his face on the pavement. There were people looking after him, so I kept going, and the first mile marker came pretty fast. I was about 20 second behind my goal pace, but as the start was pretty hilly, I hoped to make it up later in the race.
And the race was on...
Running through Times Square
And past the new World Trade Center
My goal for the race was a 1:45 finish, which was pretty ambitious and was a faster pace than I had run my last 10K race at. It was ambitious, but I almost made it. My finishing time ended up at 1:45:36, which I am pretty pleased with.
I survived, and ran a pretty good race.
In terms of my results, I was 405th in my age group, and 3,503 out of 19,455 - in the top 20% overall, so that's pretty good.
The recording of my race on my Garmin watch.
I had felt like the NYC Half Marathon was an event that was unfinished for me. I had run it once before a few years back, but I had been injured and was forced to walk big chunks of it, and didn't really feel like I gave it my all. This race redeemed that, and I am glad I had a chance to run it again while healthy, and post a good result. It's an amazing event, and our whole weekend in New York was fantastic. I'll get back to more posts shortly, and write up the whole trip.