NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix: Manhattan - Run

It was cold, but nearly as bad as the day before when the wind was whipping. I decided to run with my wool hat and added some glove liners under my thin windstopper gloves so I wouldn't have to worry. The only problem I had from the cold was a, uh, different extremity. Anyway...

My only complaint about this race was at the start. What are people thinking about when they seed themselves? They have big signs in the start chute for 5:00/mi, 6:00/mi...all the way up to walkers. I was worried that I had gotten myself up a little too far (close to the 6:00 sign and was expecting to be running a little over 7:00 for the first few miles), but some of the people I was forced to pass could not have been running any faster than 9:00/mi. Since you are supposed to stay in a fairly narrow lane for the run, it was incredibly inconvenient. Why would you want to push to the front of the race only to have people push to squeeze by you while you're running for the first 2+ miles?

All that said, it probably worked to my benefit as my first mile was just over 7:00. Had I started with a clearer path, I might have gone out too fast. So maybe I should stop whining about it, huh? :)

The second mile included a decent sized hill at the north end of the park which wasn't nearly as bad as I had remembered from when I used to rollerblade there (probably helped that it was early in the race too). And then I was able to settle into about my 7:00 pace as the park is mostly rollers. There was one more "hill" towards the end of the loop, but this wasn't a big deal on the first lap at least (all those hills I'm forced to run on where I live are good for something).

I grabbed a drink 2-3x/lap, pulling off to the side each time to walk a few steps and get my 2-3 swigs before tossing the cup and starting to run again. A little adventure on my first drink as it was partially frozen water. Sprayed myself with some ice and water when I squeezed the cup and then choked on a bit of the ice as well. Stuck with Gatorade after that.

At the 6mi mark I was just over 42:00, feeling good and on-pace to get my 7:00/mi goal. I decided I might have an outside shot at breaking 1:30 so edged up my effort here (a bit earlier than planned). The 6:43 for mile 7 felt good, but then mile 8 included the hill plus a fluid stop which resulted in a 7:12. This meant I was really going to have to be able to kick it up in the last 5k if I were to see 1:30.

But a slight hill in mile 11 and the more significant one in mile 12 took that out of play quickly. And I didn't even have another gear for the final mile. I tried to pick it up a few times, but would slow down shortly thereafter. Perhaps knowing that I couldn't get 1:30, yet was going to break a 7:00 pace easily by that point, made it hard to get that mental edge to push harder.

Maybe I should have started out a bit faster. Having a better shot at 1:30 might have given me the mental edge to push myself further physically. But I was very happy with the race.

Grabbed a drink and an apple and walked a bit while trying to re-warm my "other" extremity--apparently I need some better shorts!

Made my way out of the Park and then started jogging easy to get back to my sister's apartment (about 10' of jogging) before I froze (now I was getting cold all over). Took a nice hot shower (I miss NYC water pressure!) and had brunch with my sister and her boyfriend.

Hopped on the train and headed home!


On a flat course, I think I would have a very good shot at sub-1:30. But I feel like this is about the race I was trained for today.


I skipped out on the post-race food. It was just outside the park over on the West side, but my sister's was back on the East side. Without dry clothes, I didn't want to spend more time outside than I had to. But the race itself seemed well organized. Maybe I'll go back and run one with my sister when the weather is a bit nicer.