Staten Island Half - Rain & Wind |
So, what happened since the last posting? I ran the Bronx 10M and kept my pace under 7 minutes per mile (6:51 to be precise). I PR'ed by 2:05 minutes. That was my goal two years ago which I missed. Thanks to the marathon training, though, I was able to pull it off this time! I thought I could repeat something similar for the Staten Island Halfmarathon a few weeks later but thanks to the brutal weather and possibly my hip I ended up finishing it up with a 7:13 miles per minute average pace which still gave me a PR of 6:28 minutes! I am not complaining! You can find the details of those two runs in the sidebar or here for the Bronx 10M and here for the Staten Island Half. There is a funny fact about marathon (or any kind of distance) training: you go through all the long and speed runs and you don't really know what they do until you go and race. If there is one thing that I am taking away from this season of training (besides three PRs) is that you just have to trust your coach. Trust your training. Line up and race and you will be rewarded. This was my first time ever that I feel confident that I am actually prepared to run something longer than 10 miles. No, not run. Race!
So, let's talk NYC Marathon. I got my corral assignment a few days ago. I will be starting in wave 1, corral B, start time is 9:50am. Unfortunately I will start in the green lane which runs on the lower level of the Verrazano Bridge, i.e. goodbye great views. I am scheduled to use the ferry that leaves at 6:45am which means that I will be in the start village at least 2 hours before start time. Here is to some hoping that the weather will be great and we don't have to huddle together for hours just to stay warm and dry. I am planning to bring an old long-sleeve shirt that I can discard and a heat blanket (if I still have one at home; otherwise just a trash bag) to sit on. My phone will probably be my source of entertainment in form of an e-book to read and pictures to take. I keep telling myself that this is just like any other race. This time I just have to be a lot earlier than usual. For the race itself I have an idea about how to pace myself (see above) and I have my strategy for nutrition and hydration all figured out (first gel @ 45 minutes and then every 30 minutes; I will pack 8 pouches). I will probably bring a refillable bottle for water but I may change my mind in the very last second about this and rely on the cups that are provided on the course. I am so bad at running and drinking from those cups but I recently read about the "pinch the cup" trick and I may just try that instead. I am okay with running with any kind of bottle (I am just too lazy and especially too cheap to buy anything special plus I like that bottle my daughter got from one of her school events - maybe it's for luck!) in my hand. Phone goes on my forearm and my Garmin on my wrist. I opted out of baggage transport so I can see for myself if those ponchos at the finish line are indeed as sweet as I read everywhere. I think I am ready. It's just that darn hip!
That was a quick update. More to come in November. Good luck to everybody running the NYC Marathon with me. Keep on running, guys!