First Long Run of 2020

In terms of regularity,  February has been less strong than January, but is starting to pick up a bit. I did my first long(ish) run of 2020 this weekend. It was right around 10 miles in Manhattan and a little in Queens. Pace was a bit under 11 minutes per mile. This is what Garmin had to say about it:

Rude.

I also collided with a slow-moving pigeon and accidentally kicked it into my friend Emily, who also kicked it out of her way before it flew off. I apologize to the universe for my mistreatment of its idiotic child.

One thing I haven't done yet but need to do soon is sign up for the popular 9+1 races I like. Some of them will probably sell out soon if they haven't already. I've already signed up for the NYC Half, Brooklyn Half, and NYC Marathon so that's 3/9. Ideally, I would also like to do the Queens 10K, Bronx 10 Mile, Staten Island Half and I dunno three more I guess. The 18 mile tuneup is convenient training for the marathon, so probably that one.

I'm also mulling over doing an ultra in mid-summer. I have one in mind, but I'm not ready to commit to it here yet even though I'm already excited about it.

Race Report: Oakley Mini 10k 2014

I decided to go ahead and write this while it's still fresh in my mind, even though I was not at all pleased with my performance.

Normally I try to leave bib pickup out of the summary unless I do it on the morning of the race, but I'm going to talk about it today because it was very exciting. I went to pick up bibs and shirts for myself and my friend Michelle on Friday afternoon. I climbed the stairs to the second floor of the NYRR building on 89th Street and got in the E line. As I got to the front, the person asked my name and began rifling through the bibs. I noticed the one at the back of the stack was blue and laughingly thought to myself "what if I got a blue bib?"

AND THEN I GOT ONE

I got a blue bib. Guys, I don't think I can properly communicate to you how amazing it was to get one of these. Blue bibs are distributed to runners in the front corral. It's the fastest corral! I have always told people that whenever I see someone wearing a blue bib, I feel like going up to them and shaking their hand because…well, because! They're among the best in the city. If past-me had seen today-me, she would have wanted to shake today-me's hand.

Anyway, I'm skipping ahead. That was yesterday's pleasant surprise and only happened because this is a women only race so the crowd and distribution of its abilities are a little different from most races. This morning, I got up extra early to meet Elana in Queens so we could get a few extra miles in before the race. I didn't think this would impact my time that much, but I guess it's possible. Whatever the case was, it was not my best day. I can point to a number of different things that were not helping, but it won't accomplish much. The bottom line is that I could and should have done better.

I do want to mention the blue bib effect. Believe it or not, having the blue bib actually made the race worse for me. I got into my corral and it was a whole different experience from what I'm used to. I had a perfect view of the announcer stage and all the people they brought to the podium. These included Mary Wittenberg (of course), Kathrine Switzer, Desiree Davila, Nina Kuscik and Adrianne Haslet-Davis. I've never been so close to the start line in my life. A volunteer kept telling me to move forward but I didn't want to! I barely felt like I belonged in the corral, let alone the front of it.

And that is a problem. It was a problem today and it will continue to be a problem in the future if I don't try to fix it. Whatever the pace cutoff NYRR used to determine who was in which corral, I fell into the blue one.  I belonged there by virtue of that. But I found myself feeling very insecure. I was looking around, trying to see the paces of other people and worrying when I saw that they were all (all two that I managed to see before having to focus on the start of the race) faster than mine. I couldn't shake the "what am I doing here?" feeling. If I intend to qualify for Boston at any point, I need to be a lot more confident in my abilities.

Back to the race. As soon as the horn rang out, my corral moved forward. I've never crossed the start line so quickly at a Road Runners race. I knew I'd go out fast since I was surrounded by fast people, so I tried to be aware of that and not go out as quickly as I was inclined to. I ran my first mile in 7:32, which was probably a bit fast. But my biggest issue was that I was in my head about whether or not I could keep up with everyone else and internally deciding that I probably couldn't and constantly checking to reaffirm that self-defeating attitude. It was kind of a nightmare. And once I had sufficiently sunk my race to the point where I didn't need to check those things, it just became a slog. I had a tough race and ended up with a time of 51:36.

Elana and Michelle also had tough runs. Elana dropped off at mile 5 and headed home while Michelle continued on to the finish. Afterward, there was a post-race festival and we hung out there for a bit. We entered the raffle and got autographs from Desiree Linden, who was also cool enough to take a picture and chat briefly. We were in line to meet Lauren Fleshman, but she seemed to disappear before we made it to the front of the line.

 

It was not my best race performance, but there will be better.

Race Report: Brooklyn Half 2014 - WARNING: Monstrously Texty

Ah, yes. The Brooklyn Half. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: this race is one of my favorites of the year. It's true for a number of reasons, which I probably enumerate every year in a post just like this one. Nevertheless, I am going to do it again.

Obviously one reason is that it's my favorite race distance. I've spoken to many people at length about my race distance preferences and the half marathon is just the perfect number of miles. Not so many that you feel destroyed after finishing, but enough that it still feels like a feat and worthy of post race waffles (or beer, in this case). So there's that. Additionally, this race takes place at a pivotal time in the year, the beginning of summer. It's even more true this year than it has been in years past because the winter was brutal. I have been waiting for this weather for months and months and months, and it was in full force on May 18, the day of the Brooklyn Half.

In the last two years, NYRR has done a stellar job of stepping up the experience for the Brooklyn Half, transforming it from a friendly, local race to an iconic, enormous, still friendly, still local race. The size of it has also ballooned, going from around 10,000 in 2009 to 14,000 in 2012 to 21,000 in 2013 to a whopping 25,000 this year (these are years I ran it, explaining missing numbers from 2010 and 2011). In the last two years, they've begun holding a "Pre-Party" which I suppose is a cooler way of saying "expo." This was a fun affair in both 2013 and 2014, although the weather when we went this year was less than desirable.

I met Amortya and Jeremy at the pre-party this year on Friday, the day immediately before the race itself. I'd hoped to avoid this, but was unable to because my comedy group has its meetings on Thursday and I couldn't make it on Wednesday. No matter, it was fun even in spite of the rain. Jeremy and I enjoyed pre-party beers and Morty got pre-party whoopee pies. Afterward, I had dinner with Morty and our friend Shweta before heading home for my pre-race sleep.

As usual, I didn't get much sleep before the race. I think I went to sleep at 1 or 1:30 and had to wake up around 4:30 because my wave started at 7:00 on the dot and I wanted to make sure I got there with plenty of time, after my experience this year at the NYC Half. Mission accomplished on that front, I managed to get into the corrals by 6:20, which is some kind of record for me.

In terms of expectations, mine for this one were not great. I didn't do the training I'd hoped to do at all. I didn't even manage to do the very small amount of speedwork I did in preparation for the NYC Half in March. Having low expectations is always something of a self-fulfilling prophecy for me and this was no exception.

The race itself was fine. I struggled more than I should have for the time I ran (1:50 and change) but chalked it up to exactly the things I imagined would get in my way from the beginning. It took me longer than usual to find my pace for this race, though once I'd found it I kept it up until around mile 10, when I started to struggle. The day was warm and sunny, but I didn't consider that to be much of an issue.

I wasn't especially proud of my performance, but I was proud that I never completely gave up on the race. It would have been so easy to do, since my expectations were low and completely blowing the thing would have just fit right into the crummy way I felt about my training. See how it is? If I had given up, it would have been easy to explain away the terrible result. But I was determined to fight for whatever mediocre result I could. I feel like I'm not explaining this well. Bottom line: giving up and failing is an easier pill to swallow than trying really hard and failing (albeit less spectacularly).

After I finished, I met up with Amortya and Jeremy. We dilly-dallied for a bit because we were slightly apprehensive about drinking beer before 10:00am. At around 10:30, though, we caved and headed to a bar called Peggy O'Neil's for post race booze. I saw a number of people from my running team, the Hudson Dusters and also hoped to meet up with Michelle, Jessica, Jessica, Allison and Elana but we didn't end up getting together. At some point after Jeremy and I had consumed some large beers, Amortya left and my friends Monica, Dirk and Helen arrived. We hung out on the beach until about 4:30. All in all, it was a very good day.

Race Report: Bronx 10 Mile

This weekend was a little less productive than I'd hoped it would be because I've been fighting some sort of cold. Fortunately, I was able to do the Bronx 10 Mile that I signed up for a few months ago.

I'm trying to turn over a new leaf when it comes to race preparation. Actually, less turning over a new leaf and more getting tired of feeling like a dumbass. I therefore planned to arrive near the start at 7:00am. It was slightly chilly, but I only wore a long-sleeved t-shirt so that I had the option of not checking a bag (Please see this post for why it's a valuable option). As it turns out, Amortya was checking a bag anyway, so I just threw my shirt and phone into his because the line wasn't five miles long.

We met up with Allison, Jessica, and a few of their friends. Allison was nice enough to pick up my bib for me a few days prior to the race. I've found this to be a highly preferable strategy to morning-of pickup because shirt options are very limited once race day rolls around (Ma'am? Would you like an XL or XXL?). After we met up and I picked up my bib, we all began walking toward the corrals. I had a green bib, which was the fourth corral from the front and Amortya had a yellow bib, which was third. We split up, joined our respective corrals and waited for the race to start.

I really hoped to run under 8 minutes per mile for this race. If I have any hope of qualifying for Boston, I need to start pushing the pace much more aggressively than I have been. I did a decent job of this when the race started and I know this because I've started using my GPS watch again. I monitored the my pace closely for the entire race and for the first 6 or so miles, I was reliably under 8 minutes. The next few, however, were a different story.

Let me just begin this paragraph by saying that someone stated at the beginning of the race that the course was "mostly flat." I feel like I need to clear something up, and that is that nothing about this course was flat. It wasn't mountainous, but it certainly wasn't flat. There were rolling hills the entire way. I was fine with this up until about mile 6, when I began to have a much harder time recovering after every uphill. I knew I was in trouble when I spent a good half mile at an 8:33min/mile pace and it was at that moment that I began to come to terms with the idea that I might not achieve my goal.

I didn't. I finished the race at about 1:20:52 according to my watch and 1:20:40 according to NYRR. That's an 8:04 minute/mile pace. Not quite what I wanted, but close. I can deal with it for now but I will be working to bring that down during the post-season winter months.

Amortya finished in 1:11:12. I just looked at his results. Check this out:

As if it wasn't awesome enough that he finished in 1:11:12, take a look at his 5-mile split. It's 29:14. That's under a 6 minute/mile pace. I am in the presence of greatness.

Everyone else we met at the race did great as well, including Jessica, who finished her first 10 mile race! So, kudos to all on a fine run.

Take note, folks. This is the closest my bib will ever be to Morty's!

Black squirrel seen in the park near the race start

Birthday Weekend - Part 2 (Fifth Avenue Mile Race Report, News from Newport)

When we last left off, I'd thoroughly enjoyed some non-triathlon birthday festivities. I got home late-ish and was tired from the century ride, two hours of singing and two drinks. And lots of food. And cronuts. I fell asleep answering a text but fortunately woke up and was able to set my alarm for the 5th Avenue Mile on Sunday morning.

My heat started at 8:55, which is decently late for a race. I calculated that I needed to leave my apartment by 7:55 to get to the race with a little time to warmup and not be rushed. I'm sure it all seems very well planned out, the only problem is that I wasn't able to wake up until 7:47, 8 minutes prior to my predetermined departure time.

I'm sure it surprises no one to discover that changing into running clothes and walking Phoebe required more than 8 minutes. I, unfortunately, didn't leave home until 8:20. I sensed I would probably not arrive in time for my heat, but also remembered that there's some flexibility with which heats runners can join.

I arrived at 77th and Lexington at about 8:50 which is pretty shocking. I didn't expect for there to be any chance at all that I'd make it in time. If I'd been so motivated, I definitely could have jumped in just as the gun was going off and run with my proper heat. I was not inclined to do that and decided instead to run at 9:25 with the 30-39 women. In the meantime, I found Michelle and we cheered on the next heat.

At around 9:10, I walked over to the start and lined up. Even though I've run this race a number of times and had made peace with the fact that I (as usual) hadn't really trained for it, I started to get nervous. Although I had some awareness that I've improved (even if marginally) as a runner since last year, my only goal was to break 7 minutes. I therefore planned to run each quarter mile in 1:45.

After some introductory words, the gun finally went off. It took about 20 seconds to reach the start and at that point, I started weaving around slower runners. Finally, I settled into the far right side of 5th Avenue, where I knew Michelle was cheering. Once I passed her, I put on my dead face (no emotion, just staring straight ahead) and focused on the race and how I was feeling.

I finished the first quarter around 1:35. My arms had begun to hurt, but they usually do. It's probably a form thing I should work on. I finished the second, uphill quarter a couple seconds before 3:20, still putting me ahead of pace. Once I was there, I knew I could finish strong because I still felt really good.

Finished the third quarter a little after 5 minutes and tried to push the rest of the way. When I crossed the finish line, my watch read 6:50. By the time I finally fumbled around enough to properly press the Stop button on my watch, it had gotten to 6:52. It was a decent time, but I felt I could have done better.

Me and Michelle in our respective heats. Love that flying look. 

Upon looking at the results, I saw that I'd run a 6:47 and Michelle had run an 8:42, which is fantastic for her first time!

After the race, I texted Amortya to see how he'd fared at the Newport Half Marathon. Get this, he ran a 1:33. For those of you keeping track at home, that works out to a 7:09min/mile pace. This guy is a talented runner and I'm really looking forward to seeing how well he does in the rest of this season. I'm convinced that if he ever starts running outside of the NY/NJ area, he's going to start taking age group awards every time.

In other great news, my friend Allison also ran the Newport Half. It was her first half marathon and she did it in 2:12 and change! Amazing job, Allison!

Nice job, guys!

Race Report - Brooklyn Half Marathon

Look at me, posting things on time and stuff.

The race was great. Big, but great. I woke up at 4:30, showered, walked Phoebe and got my race bag ready. In retrospect, I didn't really need the bag. I'd originally planned to change into regular clothes but there wasn't much point in the end.

I headed to the subway around 5:20, which should have been plenty of time except for a couple of things. First, I had to wait for a train for 20-30 minutes. Second, I took the F instead of the D, which left me on the wrong corner of the park. I got off the subway around 6:05, a little nervous because I realized I was almost 1.5 miles away from bag check with only 15 minutes before it closed. I ran it and got my bag into the truck just as the doors were closing.

It was a pretty train ride

I scrambled to my corral as it closed, around 6:30. It was pretty standard from there. We stood around for the next half hour as various officials spoke to the crowd and a rousing rendition of the national anthem was sung. Finally, the race started and I crossed the mat around 12 minutes in.

So many people!

I started faster than I anticipated, with my first mile coming in just under 8 minutes. This wouldn't have necessarily been bad, I was just worried that I'd go out too fast too soon. Maybe I shouldn't have worried about it, but hindsight is 20/20. I did the first few miles around 8 minutes. The first 3 miles were around Prospect Park, the next 4 or so inside it. As we exited the park we crossed the 7 mile marker.

Post-race boardwalk

Most of the rest of the race was down Ocean Parkway, before finally ending on the Coney Island boardwalk. I struggled a little bit toward the end of the race, but still managed a decent time of 1:47:39. Not my best, but certainly not my worst. Afterward, I met up with Jeremy, Amortya, Giri, Hua and Russ (first half for both of them!) and a few other friends for beer. It was a great morning! Gotta hand it to NYRR for making this a superb race.

Also, Amortya ran a 1:39:53, Jeremy ran 1:41 and Giri 1:19. It's awesome to be in such great company.

Hardware

Still to come: Long Island Marathon recap and BQ plan. Have a great weekend, and congrats to everyone who finished!

Brooklyn Half and Rock 'n' Roll USA

Signup for the Brooklyn Half Marathon took place last Friday. Although I had the foresight to inform some of my interested friends when I received the email from NYRR on Wednesday, I managed to forget when noon rolled around and signup officially opened. It's a good thing Jeremy mentioned it to me or I may have missed it altogether.

Aside from being a well-timed, well-placed race, Brooklyn is great because there's so much hype and excitement surrounding it. Judging from my Facebook and Twitter feeds, this seems to be more true this year than it's been since I've lived in NYC. I think I can count at least 10 people I know who are running this race. This year I hope to be a little more prepared to meet people after for a beer and/or swim and/or hot dog at Coney Island. My efforts to accomplish this last year were hampered by extremely poor cell phone reception and no planning whatsoever.

Whatever happens, I expect it to be a thoroughly enjoyable race and day. With any luck, the weather will be fantastic by then and I'll be in full summer mode, shorts and all.

In other news, I registered for the Rock 'n' Roll USA marathon. After years of resolving to run one of these races, I finally decided to get off my butt and actually do it. This is partially due to the fact that, despite my high Boston aspirations, I have yet to run a sub-4 hour marathon. I view this race as a practice run and hope to do it very comfortably within that 4 hour goal.

And much like Brooklyn, I'm seeing more participation than I realized. Amortya is running it as is Eric, from the old Team ReGen. Plus, I recently attended a hash, which is a new experience I should probably write about, and met a group of people there who are doing it too! Gotta love spring and summer races.

Are you doing either? Let me know, and I hope to see you there!

Manhattan Half Marathon - Race Report

As I've mentioned a couple times, this begins my fifth year of being an active member of the running community here in NYC. As a result, I can say things like "oh, [insert number between 1 and 4] years ago when I did this race, blah blah blah." It sounds weird when I say it.

I mention it because this is my fifth time doing the Manhattan Half. While better than in some years (read: in 2009 and 2011 when the temperature hit 13 degrees or last year when it was held during a blizzard), conditions were not ideal for me. The sunshine was beautiful, but at 18 degrees it was still much colder than is my preference.

The race started at 8 and I had to pick my bib up. Unlike in past years, I actually allotted myself a sufficient amount of time to wake up, get dressed, walk Phoebe, get to NYRR, pick up my bib and then run back to the start line on 65th and the west side of Central Park. In fact, I arrived with 30 whole minutes to spare. What I can further improve upon is waiting until race morning to pick up my race stuff. Recently, all they have left at that point in terms of t-shirts are XLs and XXLs. I only need so many gigantic pajama shirts.

Jeremy and Amortya were also running the race, although none of us ran it together. My goal was to run it in 1:45, which I felt was ambitious but not unreasonable. Normally, I don't keep my own time unless it's just setting my phone timer and not looking at it until the finish line is upon me. The basis for this decision is that there is such a thing as too much information. I have a fragile psyche when it comes to racing and, frankly, I don't want to know how quickly I've run each mile as it happens. At least not at this point in my running career.

I implemented an overly complicated way of tracking my time that gave me only a vague knowledge of my mile splits. I set my watch right as the race started and then looked at the time for my first mile, which was 8:20 and based the rest of my race on that. This worked in my favor because it gave me a goal I was almost certain to beat, which is usually just the sort of goal I need to motivate me to do better. It's strange...and not entirely intuitive but last year I raced much better when I told myself things like "just run better than a 1:55" (ran a 1:47 and change) than when I thought "run a PR" (I managed a PR, but only by seconds and because the course was insanely flat) or "run 1:47." I work better toward vague, easily achievable goals, for better or worse.

Anyway, with each mile, I'd add another 8:20 to my time to determine my next target, with the understanding that if I steadily increased the delta between my actual time and my projected 8:20 minute/mile pace time, I'd be in good shape. It sort of worked. I did PR by 1:15 but did not hit 1:45. I attribtue this less to my time tracking and more to the fact that I was simply not as prepared as I should have been to run the hills in Central Park.

You watch out, 1:45!

Thursday Night at the Races - Race Report!

Note: I started writing this 3 weeks ago.

I finally did it. I not only showed my face at NYRR's Thursday Night at the Races event, I actually participated. It was pretty much as I expected, which is to say that I was definitely back of the pack but not last in either the 3k or 800 meter.

This time, I made sure to arrive at the Armory with plenty of time to register and warm up. These things are much more intimidating than they typical NYRR race, with comparatively only a handful of participants (Probably a maximum of 40 in either event, versus up to 15,000 in a typical race).

Before the 3k, I started talking to one woman who was also racing and we joked that we both simply aimed not to be last (although I don't know what she was worried about because she ran a very respectable 12:06). She said that TNR was something her boyfriend did every year and that this was her first time there, since they had decided to make a long weekend of the trip.

After the race, I heard something happening over the loudspeakers and quickly deduced that a proposal was happening. I looked over and, sure enough, it was the person I'd been speaking to and her boyfriend! It was very cute and now pretty high up on my list of cool proposals...which actually is not very long...but still.

Check this out:



I'll even accept my name being written as Jen Akatie

 And this:

I guess this misspelling is moderately less puzzling

You can see the full results here.

Happy New Year - Brief Catchup

Yes, it's taken me a little bit to get back. I had to take a little blog break after the challenge. I also have some maintenance to do with my 2013 goals, calendar, poll question...okay, everything. My entire blog needs a refresh.

I've been doing a lot of speedwork in the last few weeks. Additionally, I've probably done more strength training in the past month than I have in the rest of the now five years that I've been running. I'm interested to see whether or not it will have an impact on my racing.

So, coming up I have Thursday Night At the Races this week. I tried showing up to this a couple of weeks ago but arrived too late for the 800m, and then figured I'd wait until this week. There's also the Manhattan Half Marathon coming up in two weeks. Hopefully I'll write more about both, but I wanted to throw those out there as things coming up.

I have a hard time believing that this will be my 5th Manhattan Half. It makes me feel a little old but also like I've really grown into the NYC running community. I'm grateful to be a runner here, and I hope there are more Manhattan Halfs in my future. For this one, I'm looking for a PR, which would indicate if the speedwork I've been doing (half mile and mile repeats) has been effective. I need to see some progress there to feel like I'm heading in a good direction for a BQ this spring.

2012 in 2012: Sandy Relief Challenge - Day 11

Miles to run as of beginning of Saturday, 11/17: 273.89

Miles run on 11/17: 37.2 (60k)

And change, actually, because I had to run from my apartment to the subway and then from the subway to NYRR headquarters, where they were handing out bibs.

It's been a long time since I did a proper race report, so I intend to do that for the 60k. But I'll at least say that I set a PR by about an hour and a half. The last time I did this race (in 2010), it took me a little bit over 8 hours. This year, I finished in 6:36:19.

Hooray for PRs. And hooray for two beers going a lot farther after 37.2 miles than they normall would!

Miles to run as of beginning of Sunday, 11/18: 236.69

Psst....Here's the fundraising link: http://www.crowdrise.com/2012in2012forSandyRelief/fundraiser/kathrynescoto

Consider donating! I only have $230 until I reach my goal.

Race Report: The 2012 New York City Half Marathon - Part I

For better or worse, at this juncture in my life I am in love with two things: running and New York City. You can therefore imagine my delight when, yesterday, I had the opportunity to experience the best of both in the New York City Half Marathon.


Pre-Race
After getting back from the Expo, Marilyn and I determined our plan for the morning. I spent the afternoon doing laundry, watching TV, and running. Maybe I shouldn’t have run, but I wanted to keep things as close to normal as possible. I get myself into trouble when I start doing pre-race things that I don’t normally do. They make me nervous, and rarely have a good effect on my race performance. So I did a six mile run the night before, trying to keep it slow (I could feel myself speeding up) so that I could preserve most of my energy for the race. Is it something I might have regretted? Perhaps. Ultimately, it came down to an understanding of my routine and current level of fitness to know that getting that six miles in would do more mental good than physical harm. I regret nothing!

Marilyn arrived at my apartment at about 6:15. In terms of attire, I decided to wear my Nike Tempo 2 in 1 shorts and a Nike sleeveless top. It looked like the temperature might reach the 70s during the day, so I thought I would prepare for that rather than dress warmly and be hot. I also wore the jacket I got at Multisport World to the start, where Marilyn and I walked from my place because the subways between those two points are a little inefficient.

I initially wasn’t sure whether or not to keep my jacket. It was cold for what I was wearing, but again, I was banking on the temperature rising significantly (it didn’t). So I took a risk, checked it, and then dealt with being cold for the hour or so between when we got into the corrals (~6:50) and when I crossed the start line (~7:50).

The Course
For the purpose of review and discussion, I’ll split the course into three parts: Central Park, 7th Avenue, West Side Highway. The race started out on the West Side just south of the 72nd street transverse. Predictably (15,000 participants!), it took a long time to start. I didn’t cross the line until a good 15-20 minutes after the gun went off.

The Central Park portion of the race consists of one full (6 mile) loop. While it’s certainly not mountainous, Central Park is also not flat. The first hill of note came around a mile in. It’s just past the Boathouse and is known as Cat Hill. Even worse than that, though, is Harlem Hill, which is at the very north end of the park. I knew the park loop would be more challenging than the rest of the race, so I did a good job of pacing, trying to make sure that I was doing just under 9 minute miles because I didn’t want to lose any ground early on. So I watched every mile marker, making sure the second digit of each time was at least one less than the last (27, 36, 45, 54, etc.). It required some math on the fly. But I like math, so it worked out.

Once we hit the final mile of the park, I was ready to break out onto 7th avenue. I knew it would be filled with cheering spectators, including my roommate Jeremy and his boyfriend, Giri, who were waiting for us outside our apartment building, which is conveniently right on the course. As we exited the park, I could feel myself speeding up. I couldn’t help it! The adrenaline was kicking in and my view of Times Square opened up. I was energized by the beautiful chaos that is my favorite city. We crossed 59th street, passed Carnegie Hall, my apartment (Jeremy took a nice picture of me coming in for a high-five), the Barclays (formerly Lehman) building, which is a point of interest since I used to work there. Then we entered the heart of Times Square and the crowds grew. People held signs and reached their hands out for high fives. Spectators read runners’ names off their shirts and cheered these total strangers on.

Before I knew it, we were turning onto 42nd street and beginning the journey over to the West Side Highway. From Central Park to the West Side Highway couldn’t have been more than a 2 mile stretch, but it was definitely my favorite part of the race. And by this point, I wasn’t even doing any math on the mile markers. I knew I was going fast and all I did was make sure I stayed at a pace I could maintain for the duration of the race.

Oh, also, as we ran along 42nd street between 7th Avenue and the West Side, I made my one and only Gatorade grab. It was a massive failure. I grabbed a cup that was only about a third full, drank 3 swallows, and promptly spilled the rest of it down my shirt. Remember, kids, it’s not a race until you slop water and/or Gatorade all over yourself.

I finally got to the West Side and was well into the second half of the race. This part is kind of a blur. I was still moving, but this section was more monotonous than the first two and certainly 7th Avenue. To its credit, though, the views of the waterside and Freedom Tower were nice and constant. We also passed the Javits Center, Chelsea Piers, and the Meatpacking District before moving toward Battery Park. The first half of the last mile went through the Battery Park Underpass, which was a surreal end to the race but also a source of much spirited hootin’ and hollerin’.

The last half mile or so was slightly east of the Seaport, in the Financial District. As we exited the underpass, there was a sign that read 800 meters. Even though I was enjoying myself and knew that I’d finish well, it was the longest 800 meters of my life. Crossing the finish line was exhilarating, and as I stopped the timer on my phone, I knew I’d killed it.

I’m working on an in-depth analysis of my time and splits. That’ll be in a separate post, coming soon!

NYC Half Marathon Expo

Tomorrow marks the very first time in my New York City running career that I'll be racing at the NYC Half Marathon. Why? Well, a couple of reasons. First, it's kind of hard to get into and, until this year, there was no guaranteed entry option like there is for the marathon. Second, it's an expensive half! The five races in the Half Marathon Series each cost $30, I believe. The NYC Half costs $117! So that is a little hard to stomach. But I've heard good things about it, and last year I ran four of the five borough halves, and so accidentally qualified. I figured it was a sign that this was my year to run.

What also makes this exciting is that my friend Marilyn is running. She flew all the way from the Bay Area to visit and run! So hats off to her (and her boyfriend Amir) for making the trek.

This afternoon we went to the expo to pick up all our race materials. In retrospect, I wish I had taken some pictures to put up here. Alas. What I can do is put up a link to the course route. It's one counterclockwise loop of Central Park, a mile-ish stretch down 7th avenue and then about 5 miles down the West Side Highway before finishing at South Street Seaport.

If I have anything like a home course, this would be it. I run the West Side Highway on almost a daily basis and Central Park...well, it's Central Park. If you run and live in/around NYC, it's inevitable that you've run a considerable number of miles there.

I'm optimistic about tomorrow's race. Baseline goal: break two hours. Ideal goal: PR (under 1:58). Optimistic goal: I won't say, because I'm afraid I'll jinx it.

Race Report: The NYRR Gridiron Classic

Funny story. In the few years I've been here and an active member of the New York Road Runners, I've always wanted to do this race because there's an associated football throw competition. Don't ask why I find this so exciting. I can't throw a football worth crap, but hey, it is what it is. At the end of last year, I signed up for this race finally intending to run it AND take part in the football throw.

Did it happen? Obviously not. I mean, the race happened and was okay, but not the football throw. I woke up too late for that and missed it. Even worse, I started the race almost twenty minutes late. Here's another mspaint creation to give you a play-by-play of the morning:

Yes. So that's a more succinct summary of what happened than I can provide in words. Plus, I'm already late for dinner (oh, the irony). It's not all bad, though. I finished with an average mile pace of 8:34.

Race Report: NYRR Manhattan Half Marathon

I can’t believe I can be saying things like this now, but the 2012 Manhattan Half was my fourth. This particular race is interesting because the weather can vary quite a bit. In the four times I’ve run it, it’s been 13, 35ish, 13, and this year somewhere in the high twenties or low thirties. The biggest difference, though, between this time and any of the previous three years is that was snowing something fierce the entire time. Plus four or five hours beforehand. The weather got so bad that NYRR decided to turn it into a fun run and not time or score it. NYRR president Mary Wittenberg tweeted that the NYRR crew had been attempting to shovel for four hours before they decided to call it. I guess I could have seen this as a bad thing but I really didn’t. There were a few inches of snow on the ground for the whole race so I wouldn’t have PRed or even come close whether it was timed or not.


When all was said and done, it was a tough race but a pretty cool experience. Even though inclement weather never helps me accomplish any goals, it does create a unique running experience. The 2009 marathon tune-up, for example. It was raining all three and a half hours I was out there running. Chafing aside, it was kind of exhilarating. That’s sort of how I felt during this half marathon, though I would say I felt more badass than exhilarated. I found myself scraping snow/ice crust off my eyelashes every two miles or so. In my opinion, that’s a cool story no matter how you slice it.

I’d approximate my finishing time at 2:10-2:11. The mile markers didn’t have clocks nearby like they normally do, so it was quite difficult to gauge what was happening during the race. What I know is that the clock read 2:12 and change when I crossed the finish line and it did take a minute or two for me to cross the start. So I can only estimate from there.

Before knowing anything about what the weather conditions would look like, I’d hoped to run it right around 2 hours. Not under, but not more than a few minutes over, either. Did I accomplish this? No, no I did not. But all things considered, I’m happy with the result. If there’s anything to be learned from my history with this race, it is that I’ll be back for the 2013 Manhattan Half Marathon.

2012 Race Calendar Starting to Take Shape

As you may have read, my A race for 2012 is the Ironman US Championship in August. I'm trying to arrange my race calendar so that I can keep my focus on the Ironman while avoiding boredom. In all honesty, I doubt I'll find myself bored. Still, though, there should be more rhyme and reason to how I select my races this year versus those prior.

In choosing my race calendar, I should also evaluate my goal progress for 2011. I achieved a fair few of the things I set out to do, but I also missed a good number. In my goal analysis, I'll have to determine which unattained goals will carry over into 2012 and which ones I'll shelve for later. Ultimately, today is not the day for my goal analysis. It probably should come first, but I'm very much the type of person who acts before (or often without) thinking and thus, have already begun registering for races next year.

Which brings me to the point of this post. With the Empire State Building Run-Up out of the picture, my winter is freed up for other training. I've already signed up for the Manhattan Half-Marathon on January 21st as well as the Gridiron Classic on February 5th. The Gridiron always takes place on the day of the Super Bowl. I've always wanted to race it but have run one reason or another why I haven't been able to. Not this year!

Also, I decided that this is finally my year to do the New York City Half Marathon. Unlike the NYRR Half Marathon series, which consists of a half in each borough, the New York City half is a separate event that runs from top to bottom of the island and through iconic parts of the city. Incidentally, the course passes right by my building. The cost of this race is over four times as much as your typical half marathon series race, which is why I've avoided doing it for the past few years. It was always one of those races that I thought I should do once, so when I realized I accidentally qualified for it this year, I took it as a sign. The NYC Half takes place on March 18th, 2012.

There may or may not be more road races during that period, but they're what I have planned for now. As for multi-sport races, I plan to start off 2012 with participation in JackRabbit's Indoor Triathlon Series. I did a few of these last year and they're a pretty cool way to stay into tri during the winter time. Team Lipstick, the triathlon team I train with sometimes, is doing the race on February 5th. Now that I'm writing this entry, I see that there will be a conflict with that and the Gridiron Classic. I'll still do both but it will decrease my edge for the tri, at which I'd hoped to be competitive. Ah, well.

So as far as that goes, there are four events: January 8th, January 22nd, February 5th and February 19th. The way this series works is that if a competitor makes it in the top ten for any of these four, she is automatically qualified for the Indoor Triathlon Championships, which take place in March. Last year, I just squeaked into the championships, so I hope to do so this year by a more definitive margin. The plan right now is to race until I qualify. With any luck, I won't have to do all four. Not that I would mind, but it gets expensive.

So that's how my winter season is shaping up. I'll spend more time talking about the rest of the year at a later date. For now, stay tuned for a new rage comic. I hope you all are enjoying the holidays!

ESBRU: A Rage Comic

The ESBRU Squirmies

Although it's not official yet, my hope of doing the Empire State Building Run-Up 2012 is quickly slipping away. My sources (aka Twitter) are saying that notices have been sent and credit card charges have already been made. I have gotten neither of those things and my status on the website says "In non-guaranteed entry drawing." I'm really hoping they'll at least update my status so I don't hang around refreshing the screen all evening (is it bad that I'm admitting I'll be doing that?).

I'm not sure why I got myself so worked up about this one. Perhaps it's because I find the prospect of running around iconic New York City to be an unparalleled experience. Also, this race is simply very different from most of the ones I've done. It should scare me, but it doesn't. Ah, well. Here's hoping for ESBRU 2013!

Well Played, Cafe Metro, Well Played

 

The Cafe Metro in the ground floor of my building put this bad boy up last night. I couldn't help but get excited.

The Countdown Begins

Well, folks, we are one week away from the ING New York City Marathon. This weekend proved to be anomalous weather-wise, as we had a freak snowstorm. It's not even November yet! The weather for next Sunday looks more promising. Let's take a look at the forecast!

I can do mostly cloudy with a high near 60. My fear is that we're still too far out for that to be reliable information. But hey, as long as there's no freak snowstorm I guess it's doable, right? Right. 

Things on Facebook and Twitter have been ramping up as various groups (and individual runners, of course) are getting ready for Sunday. Last week NYRR put out a call for Social Media Reporters for the marathon, so I emailed about it. I guess there was something just crazy enough about the fact that I tweeted from miles 4 and 10 of the Baltimore Marathon because I got a response on Thursday! While I imagine it involves just starting/keeping up marathon conversation on various social media outlets, I'm not certain what it entails exactly. I guess I'll find out for sure during tomorrow's informational meeting.

There are a lot of things to get excited about this week. The Marathon Expo begins on Thursday. I'd like to get out there sometime Thursday or Friday, but I'm not sure it will be possible because of work. Maybe things will be slow and I'll be able to sneak out for a couple of hours. Marathon week is typically kicked off with the Poland Spring Marathon Kickoff, but it was canceled today due to hazardous conditions in the park. Too bad, because I'd hoped to get to the finish to sample some reGen (note: if you have a running group that would like to sample it, please let me know!). Also canceled was the Halloween Marathon, part of the Holiday Marathon series that some of you in the NYC area may have heard of.

And as has happened with every marathon for the last few years, I didn't properly plan my outfit! I mean, since I know what I'm in for with the outfit I wore at Baltimore, I'll be wearing that on Sunday as well. But I always say I'm going to put my name on the back of my shirt and never do. Not that it's too late, but I'd like to figure out a good way to do it on a dry fit shirt. Fortunately, I did come up with a solution for this, even if it's not necessarily ideal. Behold!

When I signed up for my pace group in Baltimore, the guy at the table wrote my name on this bib and told me to wear it on my back. I did, it worked well, and so I'm going to do the same thing for NYC. And I'm hoping that I'll hear a lot more "Go Katie!" because of it. Normally I hear a fair amount of that for other Katies and just pretend it's for me. This time, it WILL be for me!

I didn't do my last "long" run today but I intend to do it tomorrow as my normal Monday commitment (improv) has been postponed.

I'll update tomorrow about the NYRR meeting. Should be interesting and I'm looking forward to a fun and exciting week!