13.1 miles of fun

I made my half marathon debut on Sunday morning in the NYC Half Marathon. New York Road Runners, the group that organizes almost all running events in the City, reports that the weather was a cool 71 degrees with 61% humidity and clear skies. Honestly, it was a perfect morning for running. The days before had been ridiculously hazy, humid and hot, so we lucked out. The race was essentially eight miles in Central Park, starting at 85th and the East Drive and then five miles on the streets of the city down 7th Avenue through Times Square to the West Side Highway via 42nd Street. The last three and a half miles were on the West Side Highway toward Battery Park, which was a long killer stretch of flat, flat road. The entire time I could see the World Financial Center towers, which were about 800m shy of the finish line, and they just seemed soooo far away.

I woke up that morning at 3:30 because my throat hurt so badly that I didn't want to breathe or swallow anymore. Luckily that subsided until after the race. I find that running is a natural fix for whatever ails you, at least for the duration of the run. If my nose is stuffy, it magically clears up while I'm running and then clogs again after I'm done. It my throat hurts, it stops until after I finish. This has got to be part of that fight & flight instinct.

Runners had to arrive by 6:15 AM although the race didn't start until 7 AM, so there was a lot of standing around. Amazingly enough, Ronit managed to find me, so we stretched together and passed the time. NYRR had sent us tips on how to manage racing in the heat, and one of the tips was to eat a packet of salt before the race. I hadn't managed to get any packets the night before, but Ronit had, so she produced one out of her sports bra for me (yes, we're close) and I swallowed it just before the start to prevent dehydration. Now, you all know how much I love salt (inherited this from Dad), but this was so gross! My stomach didn't like it at all either, seeing as how it was hungry and all I gave it was salt. It was like, "where are the fries that go with that salt?!?"

7 AM rolled around and we did that accordian thing in the corrals that happens before races because every one is jockeying for the best start position. I didn't even hear the start, but I knew that once we passed the 4000-4999 corral that it was really underway. It took me over seven minutes from when the clock started to cross the line, but I didn't know that because I don't have a running watch. The first six miles were quick...four of them were at a nine minute pace, including those that encompassed the giant hills at the north end of the park. The next two in the park slowed down to around 10 minutes, which is what I should have been running all along and I coaxed myself to the 9 mile marker before I gave into my hip pain and walked a little bit. Miles 10, 11, 12 and 13 were really hard and I walked in each of them. This time it was because my legs were tired and not just because I didn't want to run anymore, which frequently happened during my long training runs (you know, how it is -- I wouldn't even be that tired physically, but I'd walk a big hill because I just didn't want to run it). I was able to pick-up the pace for the last little bit (like 200m) and didn't collapse at the finish or anything! I finished in 2:11:41, with an average mile pace of 10:03. My goal was to run 10 minute miles, so I'm really happy with my efforts.

After winding my way through the chute, I stretched out under a tree in Battery Park and picked up my stuff so I could free my feet from their shoe prisons. Ronit managed to find me again while I was sitting on a bench changing into my flip flops. She's good like that. Her parents, sister and two "brothers" (dogs named Beamer and Audi) had come to cheer her on, so we hung out with them in Battery Park and they gave me a ride uptown afterward. Her dad got a picture of us, but I haven't gotten a copy yet. Once I do I'll post it.

The only picture I have to offer is courteousy of my dad--he called on Sunday night to congratulate me and asked me what my feet looked like, as I always get nasty blisters and have giant callouses. When he asked, I decided I'd take a picture and share the state of my feet with anyone and everyone on the world wide web. Check it out:
Scary right? Ha! I've already been to the pedicurist and taken care of it. My feet look much more normal now.

Do I think I'll do another one? Um...not sure. I'm definitely going to continue with 10ks and think that I would enjoy doing a 10 mile, but 13.1 again? Maybe. Ask me next year.