nyc half marathon

on sunday, august 27th i ran the new york city half marathon race. and it went pretty well.
it was a perfect running day, especially for august, with the temperature at a very cool 67 degrees. the race started out in central park at east 87th street. to see the route, click here. we then circled through the entire park. while running through it, we were treated to musicians playing classical music. pretty cool huh?


at around mile 7.5, as i was exiting the park and onto 7th avenue, U2's song "New York" was blasting over the loudspeakers. this was probably one of the highlights of the run, as it was SO COOL to hit the streets of new york with that song playing. it totally pumped me up! from this point to mile 9 was favorite part of the run, as we got to run down 7th avenue and onto 42nd street, running through times square with not a car in sight. all the roads were blocked off and the streets really did belong to the runners.


right before i got to times square, it started to pour rain. in a matter of seconds, all of us runners were soaking wet and the streets were drenched in water. it was really cool to run through times square with water pouring onto my face. however, with the rain as a distraction, i unforunately missed the broadway musical singers who were performing for us on a stage. my friend who ran through there at a different time heard them performing a song from rent. how did i miss that?!

after continuing west on 42nd street, we then crossed over onto the west side highway and ran on it from mile 9 to the finish. at about mile 10, my legs started to get really heavy, and i started to get tired. however, at mile 11, i had the best surprise ever. as i was running, i heard someone yell my name, and looking to the left, i passed right by bettina and brian, who were yelling and cheering for me! that definitely got my blood pumping again and helped me to cross that finish line. i even finished at my goal time of under 2 hours, just barely! i finished the race in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 46 seconds, averaging a pace of 9 minutes and 8 seconds! looks like the yasso 800s was almost accurate in predicting my time!

it was even cooler to run under 2 hours, because only 2 days before, when marc went and picked up my race packet for me, he asked me what goal time was (as nike was handing out pace bracelets) and i said, 2 hours! so it was really exciting to meet that goal! plus i beat my last half marathon time by 5 minutes!

after the finish, upon picking up water, gatorade and an apple, i decided to stand in a very long line for a post-run massage. the line was really long, and seeing as how it was cold and i was still really wet (especially my socks) i kept questioning whether this massage would really be worth it. after standing there for probably over an hour, it was finally my turn. and let me tell you, the wait was definitely worth it. this nice chinese woman gave me a 10 minute massage, working on my legs, gluts and back.

even with the massage, all day yesterday and today, my legs have been really sore! i'm really glad i ran this race though as it will help me to prepare for the full marathon. in fact, running this race has already taught me that if i want to finish the full marathon, i will definitely need to slow down the pace. otherwise i might not cross that finish line!