My 2015 NYC Half Race Report

After last Friday's post, I'm sure you've been waiting with bated breath to learn how the NYC Half went for me--that is, unless you already looked up my time on NYRR.com or, perhaps more likely, you just don't care.You're here, though, so I might as well tell you about it.

Last Sunday proved to be near perfect racing weather. Although it rained all day Saturday and I got soaked on my shakeout run, the weather gods saw fit to close the heavens sometime around midnight. The temperature also cooperated, hovering around 40 overnight and holding into the early morning hours.

Even though I live very close to the start, I still set my alarm for 4:45 a.m., almost three hours before gun time, to give myself plenty of time to eat and digest my typical pre-race bagel with peanut butter.

In addition to the bagel, I tried something new this time--and yes, I know you're not supposed to try new things on race day--I took a Red Ace concentrated beet juice shot. In the two weeks before my last several marathons I've had one to two glasses of beet juice a day, but stopped the day before the race. This was the first time I actually took one of these shots pre-race, as the bottle directs.¹ I was a bit worried about possible GI issues, but I seemed to do fine. In other words, I did not see an increase in the half-dozen trips I already make to the port-o-potty pre-race.

I left my place at 6:30 a.m. to make it to Central Park South before baggage closed and bumped into a couple of Whippet friends who were also running. We chatted as we passed through security but split up when it was time to "do our business." I made it my corral several minutes before its 7:10 a.m. closing time and made my way to the front where I'd arranged to meet up with a few teammates--Steve, Jonathan, and Will--looking to run a similar pace. In the corral I also bumped into one of my good non-Whippet running friends, Helen, a member of Athena New York. Having folks to chat with definitely helped to pass the twenty minutes of idle time.

An Almost Spring Update

Here I am more than half way through my Boston training and I haven't posted in almost two months! So, how is everything going? For those that don't know, the entire eastern seaboard was trapped in a mini-ice age for virtually all of January and February. Despite its exceptionalism, New York did not escape the arctic air. While I managed to do all of my weekend long runs outside (thanks to peer pressure), I did most of my mid-week workouts on the treadmill. This did not a happy runner make.

The East River begins to thaw near Sutton Place

Mercifully, the onset of daylight savings appears to have broken Old Man Winter's icy grip on Gotham with the mercury forecast to be above freezing for at least the next 24 hours (I won't look ahead any farther than that because the weatherman has burned me too many times this winter). This has brought about the seasonal banishment of running tights, as shorts once again safely enter the outdoor rotation. Of course I'm happy to be able to run outside without the dangers of black ice, slushy curbs, and frostbitten fingers, but I'm also relieved that my laundry bill will take a nosedive--winter running clothes pile up fast!