NYC Half

Last Sunday it was the NYC Half. I purposely came into the race with little or no expectations.

I knew it was going to be really warm - mid 70s already at 7am. And I was not sure how fresh my legs were going to be since I had already ran around 50 miles that week before the race. But on the other hand I knew I had been running well since coming back from North Carolina. So the strategy was to run a conservative first half and run the second half faster. I was hoping to run as close to my 1h25 PR.

Well the strategy to run conservatively went up in smoke from the beginning. I ran the first 2 miles in at 6.20 pace when 20 seconds slower would have been what I intended. But I was tagging these 3 Polish and feeling good. I did slow down to around 6.30 pace till Mile 6 or so and by that time had left the Polish runners behind.

Leaving Central Park meant that the hilly section was behind and I could attempt to force the pace. On 7th Avenue and Times Square I ran just below 6.20. Surprinsingly I still felt good but did slow down to 6.25s from Miles 9 to 12. Despite going slower I was passing people by and that felt really satisfying.

Going into final mile I picked pace once again and did it in just under 6.10.

Overall kept a steady pace with 5Ks in the 20min range and the 2nd half slightly faster. Now I have a new PR of 1h24m35 officially.

Despite the humidity and high temperatures weather was never an issue since I made a point of drinking at every station and took a couple of those nasty energy gels.

As I was finishing the race the female winner Paula Radcliffe was being interviewed. If you watch that interview you can see me passing by totally drenched in sweat and water.
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