NYC Half!!

Yikes! What a week so far!! I ran the NYC Half on Sunday, was crazy lethargic on Monday and just plain busy yesterday...life is good. I'm so happy with Sunday's race....it was hot, hilly and humid, but I finished with a HUGE smile on my face. My time was 2:21:19....not too shabby.

Ok, so onto the race report:

First off, thank god for a good night's sleep! I think I was out by 9:30, which rocked as I had to be up and out by 4:30. I was really rested, had some breakfast and a shake and met up with Hapi and Chrissy (my crew who I run with and who happen to live right across the street). We picked up the rest of the gang and were off to the city. I have to say, I was completely calm and ready. We got to our corral and had a ton of time to kill, but ran into some of the guys from my running club which was nice and made the time go by.

I won't bore you with a mile by mile recap, but I will say this, miles 1-7ish were a breeze. The beginning part of the race was in Central Park, which is hilly (hence the sore quads). I felt at ease and comfortable, the worst part were the water stops - almost all of the pre-filled cups were gone, every stop in Central Park had a little wait, which was annoying, but ok.

Exiting the park around the 7.5 mile mark was by far the best part of the run. There were tons of supporters in the park, bikers with cow bells, families with signs, the works, but OMG, nothing was as magical as 5th ave. It was crazy emotional for me, to hear the roar of the crowd and all of those people, I can only imagine what the Big Event (the full) is like!!

I felt really strong up till about mile 9, right before the West Side Hwy. I half expected to crash a little here, so I tried to keep my thoughts positive and really worked on my hydration. I ended up chugging a red Gatorade which left me with a side cramp around mile 11, which is where I did the most walking. I picked it up for mile 12 and rocked the finish. I'm happy with my time, and since I was using this as a training run for the Hampton's Half in Sept, I feel confident that I will maybe come closer to my goal of finishing in 2:10.

All in all this race was a great experience! Things that I found a little annoying, like having to pick up your race packet in person, little stuff like that has been replaced with great memories...I will definitely run this next year!!

Official Race Stats:

Distance: 13.1 Miles, 21.1 Kilometers

Date/Time: August 16, 2009, 7:00 am

Sponsor: NYRR

Location: Central Park to Battery Park
NYC Weather: 77 degrees, 74% hum., wind 6 mph